Tejay van Garderen eyeing the Tour de France yellow jersey in the next few years
Winner of the Tour de France white jersey, Tejay van Garderen has noted that winning the yellow jersey at the race has always been his ambition and he is positive to fulfil his dreams in the coming seasons.
"A year might be a bit soon, but in a few years I think it's possible," Van Garderen said.
"I think it'll be a few years before I can think about switching this colour".
"I'm still eligible next year [for white] so maybe I can think about winning this again first. Being able to compete and hold my own in a three-week race has been wild".
The 23-year-old marked his debut appearance with Team Rabobank Continental in 2008 and rode with the team for a period of two years.
He accepted an offer from the American outfit, Team HTC-Columbia in 2010 and had to find a new home after the team announced its demise by the end of 2011 season.
Tejay joined Team BMC to start his 2012 season and has been impressive in the first half of his debut season with the team.
He grabbed the fourth overall position at the Tour of California and occupied the fifth overall spot at the Paris-Nice 2012 along with the young rider classifications win at the race.
The American marked his second Tour de appearance with Team BMC and impressed the management with his fifth overall finish at the race.
Tejay fell a little more than 11 minutes short of the race winner, Bradley Wiggins and occupied the fifth overall position.
Christopher Froome, Vincenzo Nibali and Jurgen Van Den Broeck occupied the second, the third and the fourth positions respectively.
The cyclist dedicated his Tour de France achievements to the victims of cinema shooting at a movie premiere in his hometown, Colorado that killed 12 and injured almost 70 people.
"My wife says what's happening in the States is incredible," he said.
"I'm not on Twitter or anything so it hasn't really soaked in yet. So I can't wait to get home and get the reaction".
He overcame Thibaut Pinot of Team FDJ-Big Mat by a convincing lead of 6 minutes and 13 seconds and grabbed the top spot at the Tour de France young rider’s classifications.
Steven Kruijswijk, Rein Taaramae and Gorka Izagirre Insausti occupied the third, the fourth and the fifth positions respectively.
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