Van Garderen remains cautious after near-perfect first week (Reuters)
By Julien Pretot PLUMELEC, France (Reuters) – Tejay van Garderen emerged as a credible Tour de France contender after a treacherous first week, yet the American refused to get carried away ahead of two grueling weeks in the mountains. Van Garderen is second overall and trails overall leader Chris Froome by 12 seconds after his BMC Racing team beat the Briton’s Sky team by one second in the ninth stage, a 28-km time trial on Sunday. “The team in the first week has been incredible, we passed every test with flying colors, it gives me the morale for the mountains, it gives the team a lot of morale,” Van Garderen, fifth in the Tour in 2012 and 2014, told a news conference.