TJ interview with Velonews

[oldpotatoe]

http://www.velonews.com/2017/05/giro-ditalia/van-garderen-maybe-not-grand-tour-rider_438724

[Tickdoc]

I missed the question "wouldn't you rather be in California right now?"

Poor guy. Hang in there.

[benb]

Man does he look anorexic in that shot! That has got to be so draining to do that to your body.

These guys burn off so much upper body mass I'm amazed they can ride that much without back/arm problems.

Such a weird thing, I love cycling, I enjoyed racing, but I'm totally glad I never had that kind of talent.

Makes me wonder if some of his troubles with "my body failing" is that he's just not intended to be that skinny to be a GC contender.

[GregL]

Man does he look anorexic in that shot! That has got to be so draining to do that to your body.

These guys burn off so much upper body mass I'm amazed they can ride that much without back/arm problems.

Such a weird thing, I love cycling, I enjoyed racing, but I'm totally glad I never had that kind of talent.

Makes me wonder if some of his troubles with "my body failing" is that he's just not intended to be that skinny to be a GC contender.
My teenage daughter calls pro cyclists "living stick figures."

Greg

[spartanKid]

It's fairly obvious that Tejay is trying to go the route of Wiggins/Froome and drop as much weight as possible from a perhaps more TT oriented physique in order to be a 3 week racer. Clearly it works for some people for various reasons, but obviously doesn't work for everyone. HTC-Highroad tried this with Tony Martin back in the day but he couldn't ever make the jump from 1 week races to 3 week races, probably because he still wanted to focus on TT world championships.

At this point in his career, I'd like to see Tejay gain 5-10 lbs back and focus more on TTs and one week races, while being a superdom/stage hunter in the GTs. There is clearly a market for this type of rider and placing well in lots of 1 week races will earn him enough UCI points to ensure he can get contracts. Plus it seems like the GT pressure is getting to him mentally and this type of role would be a lot more relaxed.

[ultraman6970]

Im not a fitter neither a trainer ok? but just from looking at this kid pedaling squares probably he needs to start from zero old style... fix gear for a few months and see what happens.

Even Niel Peart had to go back to basics at some point.

[Black Dog]

It’s really confusing, frustrating. I know what people are probably saying about me — I don’t even look at cycling websites anymore, and I deleted my social media accounts — I know what people are saying. Every time I want to prove them wrong … I don’t know why it’s not working.

From the article.