Americans Abroad: Van Garderen's Suisse success

Welcome to Americans Abroad, our weekly check-in with the American pros in the European peloton. VeloNews will publish these updates every Monday throughout the season.

After a tough day in the cold on stage 6 of Tour de Suisse, when Tejay van Garderen lost time and got dropped on the final climb, he stormed back on stage 7 and won the day. After stage 6, van Garderen said he “froze up” and couldn’t go with the rest of the general classification contenders when the climbing started. The following day, he was able to silence his critics and rode away from the field to snag the victory. Van Garderen won by 16 seconds over Miguel Ángel López of Astana and Warren Barguil (Giant – Alpecin). The following day was an individual time trial, where Van Garderen came in 10th place.

Van Garderen finished the nine-stage race in sixth place, 1:26 behind López, the overall winner. His compatriot, Andrew Talansky of Cannondale finished fifth overall.

Ian Boswell (Sky)

Boswell continued his busy race season with the Tour de Suisse. Overall, he finished 37th.

Joe Dombrowski (Cannondale)

Dombrowski was Talansky’s lieutenant at Suisse. In stage 9, he rode himself to a top-10 finish, which was enough to move him up to 26th overall.

Tyler Farrar (Dimension Data)

Farrar was the road captain for the South African squad in Switzerland. Overall, he finished in 124th place and was 94th during stage 4, his best day of the race.

Phil Gaimon (Cannondale)

Gaimon spent his week in Holland racing the Ster ZLM Toer GP Jan van Heeswijk. He finished the race 95th overall, but was ninth in the mountains competition. The fifth and final stage was his best of the week, when he crossed the line 79th.
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Katie Hall (UnitedHealthcare)

In the Aviva Women’s Tour of Britain, Hall finished 22nd overall. She won the queen of the mountains competition. Her best stage finish was 25th place on stage 2, from Atherstone to Stratford-upon-Avon.

Carter Jones (Giant – Alpecin)

Jones raced the GP Jan van Heeswijk in the Netherlands, but did not start stage 2.

Abigail Mickey (UnitedHealthcare)

Mickey was among the American contingent in England racing the Aviva Women’s Tour. She did not finish the second stage after crashing and suffering a minor concussion.

Taylor Phinney (BMC)

Phinney spent his week in the Netherlands as BMC’s leader. At the ZLM Tour, he finished second in stage 1’s time trial around Goes, wearing his national TT champion’s jersey. Overall, he was 26th, 1:02 behind Sep Vanmarcke (LottoNL – Jumbo)

Laurel Rathbun (UnitedHealthcare)

Rathbun was the third UHC rider in England last week. Like Mickey, she was unable to finish the race, withdrawing during stage 4.

Kiel Reijnen (Trek – Segafredo)

Reijnen raced in Switzerland last week for Fabian Cancellara. Overall, he was 116th, including a 75th place on stage 4 into Champagne.

Joey Rosskopf (BMC)

Rosskopf was one of the helpers for Taylor Phinney in the Netherlands. Stage 5 was his best of the race, 44th, and he finished 65th overall.

Peter Stetina (Trek – Segafredo)

Stetina was the second American on the Trek – Segafredo squad in Switzerland last week. He was the second fastest member of his team, behind Frank Schleck. Stetina was 22nd overall and finished 24th on stage 5.

Andrew Talansky (Cannondale)

Following his Tour of California success, Talansky headed to Switzerland hoping to continue where he left off in California. As Cannondale’s team leader, Talansky finished fifth overall, including a fifth place in the stage 8 individual time trial.

Alison Tetrick (Cylance)

Tetrick raced in England over the week. She withdrew during stage 5 and finished eighth on stage 1 into Norwich.

Tayler Wiles (Orica – AIS)

Wiles was the final American in the Tour of Britain last week. Of the five Americans, she was one of two to finish the race. She was 46th overall, 17:06 behind Lizzie Armitstead (Boels – Dolmans), the overall winner.