TdF 2013: The Americans

Are you an AmeriCAN or, um, the other 97% of the field.  In honor of the impending 4th of July, I'm dedicating this edition to the Americans in the TdF this year.  Stage 4 TTT summary below...

U.S.A.!
The good ol' US of A has a stable of rising stars in cycling, but this year's field is noticeably short on Stars n Stripes.  Only 6 of the 198 starters this year are American, but there is some fresh, and unexpected, talent in there.

This guys likes the US.  And Italy.  And flashing bikers.

The 6 riders are Ted King of Cannondale, Brent Bookwalter and Tejay VanGarderen of BMC, and Tom Danielson, Andrew Talansky, and Christian VandeVelde of Garmin-Sharp (Team BMC and Garmin-Sharp are US-based teams).  Gone is George Hincapie and his 16 straight finishes in the Tour, and gone is Levi Leipheimer, one of the most consistent American riders over the past decade.

Talansky and King are first-timers in the Tour, having taken slightly different routes to losing their TdF virginity.  Ted King has actually been around cycling for a while (he's 30), but didn't make a high level team until 2011.  He'll be participating as support for Peter Sagan's bid to repeat Green jersey glory.
Talansky, at the tender age of 24, is the breakout surprise of American cycling this year.  A handful of Best Young Rider victories already under his belt, he's taken a Paris-Nice stage victory already this year.  And as I referenced on my rider summary, owns one of my favorite moments of the early cycling season.  Coming up the Risoul among fog and snow, Froome and Porte seemed to be jockeying for 2nd place having dropped everyone else.  Talansky came up out of nowhere, and made Froome sprint to the summit.  It was an epic battle.

Talansky (behind) made my day... so close.

CVV and Tommy D (hey, that rhymes) are the "old" guys.  Christian has started 10 TdFs over the last decade and a half, and won the USAPCC last year.  This is just Tommy D's 3rd, but he's got a top 10 in the Tour and Vuelta.  He also likes to tear up my home state of CO, owning the record on the Mt Evans Hill Climb.  I don't know if they have the ok to go for personal glory, or they're working full time for Canadian Ryder Hesjdal, but both are capable of getting wins.

Bookwalter was at the top of a lot of people's list for this year's US National Road Race (won by Fast Freddie Rodriguez), but ended up 2nd in both the road race and TT.  This is his 3rd Tour, and though he will be working for either Cadel or Tejay, he'll try to make some noise in the 2 TTs.

Tejay likes winning...

Tejay is truly the next great hope of American cycling.  He's got a closet full of White jerseys, and earlier this year nabbed his first GC win at the Tour of California.  A 5th place last year in the TdF proves he can handle the Grand Tours.  When will his time come to be a primary team lead?  I'd say soon, but this year it's still backseat to Cadel.  I still wonder if it might have been different this year if he had won the TdSuisse...

So, let that nationalism flow, now you know who to root for.

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Stage 4 Summary
Where did you come from, Orica-Greenedge??  After winning the sprint yesterday with Simon Gerrans, the OG team (hehe) won the TTT today over the favorites and TTT/TdF royalty (Sky, Garmin-Sharp, BMC,...).  Oh, and by the way, they rode the 25 km course averaging over 36 mph (yes MILES per hour, 58 some-odd kph).  This puts Gerrans in the Yellow jersey (tied with 2 of his teammates), and provides some actual separation in the overall standings.  He's still just 1 second over two riders from Omega Pharma-Quick Step.
And in a rare turn of me calling something, American Andrew Talansky has taken over the White jersey!
Other news: Aforementioned Ted King, riding the TTT mostly alone due to injuries suffered on day 1, finished 7 seconds outside the 25% time limit for the stage, and was promptly cut by race officials.  The protest is in progress, as exceptions are frequently made when it's a close call, but it doesn't look good for him to continue his first tour and try to shake off his injuries.


Parting thought: Come and and support American cycling this year, at the USA Pro Challenge.  It's the chance for the Americans to show off in front of a home crowd.  The 3 above-mentioned teams will be there, so you will likely see all of those guys, in addition to (probably): Taylor Phinney (my hometown hero, and owner of what I assume to be the best shoe collection in professional cycling), Joe Dombrowski (winner of last year's Best Young Rider on the youthful Bontrager team, now big-timing it on Team Sky), and countless others.