Van Garderen, Peter Sagan eying yellow jersey

Tejay Van Garderen and Peter Sagan have more than most to gain from Sunday's team timetrial at the Tour de France.

The pair sit within 13 seconds of current yellow jersey holder Chris Froome and an impressive performance by either the BMC or Tinkoff-Saxo squads over the 28km course from Vannes to Plumelec could be enough to snatch the leader's jersey off the Briton.

BMC perhaps have the best chance as they are also world team timetrial champions and have been mightily impressive throughout the Tour so far, often riding hard on the front of the bunch and keeping their leader out of trouble.

American Van Garderen doesn't want to tempt fate by thinking too much about it but he knows a first ever yellow jersey is within his grasp.

"With the team I have and what they've done so far, I'm pretty confident," said the 26-year-old.

"There's always a chance, I don't want to jinx myself thinking about it too much, we're just going to go out there and ride as hard as we can.

"We've got four world champions in that discipline on this team so we'll put out the best performance we can."

Van Garderen is something of a nearly man in the peloton, often securing high finishes but rarely turning those into wins.

He won the Tour's white jersey for best young rider in 2012, finishing fifth overall.

He was also fifth last year while he has won the Tour of California and the USA Pro Cycling Challenge three times.

But more often than not, he narrowly misses out, such as last month's Criterium du Dauphine where he finished second to Froome.

He's also finished second at the Tours of Oman (2014 and 2015), San Luis (2013), Algarve (2011), Turkey (2010) and de l'Avenir (2009).

So to take the yellow jersey on Sunday would be a huge boost for the consistent all-rounder.

Sagan too has had his fair share of near misses, particularly when it comes to Tour stages.

He was fourth on Saturday's finish in Mur de Bretagne taking his record to 19 top five finishes on Tour stages since his last win just over two years ago.

He did at least snipe the green jersey off Andre Greipel, continuing his domination of a competition he won the previous three years.

"I could even have had the yellow jersey (on Saturday) but I'm happy with fourth place and the green jersey, even if it's only by three points," said the 25-year-old Slovak who trails Froome by just 11sec.

Tinkoff-Saxo will not just be working for him to take yellow on Sunday but also to reduce team leader Alberto Contador's 36sec deficit to Froome.

Snatching yellow would be a welcome bonus though.

"Don't put pressure on me!" Sagan joked when asked about it.

"The whole team will work, I think we can do a good result, I'm confident and I feel calm."
Source: AFP