Christian Vande Velde

Christian Vande Velde

Vande Velde at the 2011 Tour de France
Personal information
Full name	Christian Vande Velde
Nickname	VDV, CVV
Born	(1976-05-22) May 22, 1976 (age 40) Lemont, Illinois, U.S.
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	69 kg (152 lb; 10.9 st)
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	All-rounder
Professional team(s)
1998–2003	U.S. Postal Service
2004	Liberty Seguros
2005–2007	Team CSC
2008–2013	Slipstream–Chipotle
Major wins
Redlands Bicycle Classic (1999) Tour de Luxembourg (2006) Tour of Missouri (2008) USA Pro Cycling Challenge (2012)

Christian Vande Velde (born May 22, 1976) is a retired American professional road racing cyclist of Belgian descent, who rode professionally between 1998 and 2013. Vande Velde competed for the U.S. Postal Service, Liberty Seguros, Team CSC and Garmin–Sharp squads. He is the son of United States Bicycling Hall of Fame inductee John Vande Velde.

Vande Velde started his Grand Tour career by participating in the 1998 Vuelta a España, where he assisted Lance Armstrong, to a fourth-place finish. Vande Velde twice rode on the Tour de France team that brought Lance Armstrong to victory, in 1999, and 2001. In the 1999 Tour de France, Vande Velde was for a time the leader of the young rider classification; he did not compete, however, in the 2000 Tour de France. Vande Velde moved to Liberty Seguros in 2004, and switched to Team CSC in 2005. During this time, he worked as a domestique, riding in support of varying team captains, even though the 2005 season saw Vande Velde taking chances of his own. In one instance, Vande Velde was a breakaway participant on the fourth stage of the Eneco Tour. The breakaway, however, was eventually hampered when the peloton was led on a false route, meaning the breakaway riders had to wait for the peloton to get back on track, at which time the gap between the break and the peloton was reduced from six to four minutes with 43 kilometres to go.