Tejay van Garderen

Tejay van Garderen

Van Garderen at the 2013 Paris–Nice
Personal information
Full name	Tejay van Garderen
Nickname	The Zen Warrior
Born	(1988-08-12) August 12, 1988 (age 28) Tacoma, Washington, United States
Height	1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight	72 kg (159 lb; 11 st)
Team information
Current team	BMC Racing Team
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	All-rounder
Amateur team(s)
2004–2005	Rio Grande (Fort Collins, CO)
2005–2006	Team 5280 (Boulder, CO)
2007	VMG Racing/USA National Team
Professional team(s)
2008–2009	Rabobank Continental Team
2010–2011	Team HTC–Columbia
2012–	BMC Racing Team
Major wins
Grand Tours Tour de France Young rider classification (2012) 1 TTT stage (2015) Vuelta a España 1 TTT stage (2015) Stage races Tour of California (2013) USA Pro Cycling Challenge (2013, 2014)
Medal record Road bicycle racing Representing BMC Racing Team World Championships 2012 Valkenburg Team Time Trial 2014 Ponferranda Team Time Trial

Grand Tours

Stage races

Tejay van Garderen (born August 12, 1988) is an American professional cyclist for BMC Racing Team. He lives in Nice, , France, during the season.

Van Garderen was born in Tacoma, Washington, but spent most of his childhood in Bozeman, Montana. His father is Dutch and he speaks the Dutch language quite well. He began riding at 10. By 14, he nearly beat two hours at the Mount Evans Hill Climb, a 28-mile climb gaining nearly 7,000 feet. He won 10 junior national titles in road (road race, criterium and TT) and cyclo-cross. Two of his early teams were the Team Rio Grande Racing developmental squad (2004–2005; Fort Collins, Colorado) and Team 5280 Magazine developmental squad (2005–2006, now part of Cannondale–Drapac; Boulder, Colorado).

Van Garderen's first big senior race was at age 18 in the 2007 Tour of California as a part of the national team. He pulled out on stage 4. He rode in the U.S. and Europe in 2007 and came 20th in the Tour de l'Avenir.

Van Garderen joined the Rabobank Continental Team in 2008. He lived in the Netherlands and came second in the Flèche du Sud and Circuito Montañés. He won a stage of the Tour de l'Avenir and came 24th in the Under-23 World Road Championship in Varese, Italy.

Van Garderen joined Team HTC–Columbia the following year.

Van Garderen came to a team with most wins in 2009 thanks to prolific sprinters Mark Cavendish and André Greipel. He finished 9th in his first stage race, the Volta ao Algarve, climbing to 5th place on the third stage to the Alto do Malhao summit. In the 2010 Tour of Turkey, he came second on two stages and second overall, 29 seconds behind Giovanni Visconti.