Christian Vande Velde

Christian Vande Velde

Personal information
Full name	Christian Vande Velde
Nickname	VDV, CVV
Born	May 22, 1976 (1976-05-22) (age 35) Lemont, Illinois, United States of America
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	69 kg (150 lb; 10.9 st)
Team information
Current team	Garmin-Cervélo
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	All-rounder
Professional team(s)
1998–2003 2004 2005–2007 2008–	US Postal Liberty Seguros Team CSC Slipstream-Chipotle
Major wins
Giro d'Italia, 1 Stage TTT Paris Nice, 1 Stage USA Cycling Professional Tour Champion (2008) Tour of Missouri (2008) Tour de Luxembourg (2006) Eneco Tour of Benelux Mountains classification (2005) Quatre Jours de Dunkerque Youth Classification (1999)
Infobox last updated on December 12, 2008

Christian Vande Velde (born 22 May 1976 in Lemont, Illinois, U.S.) is an American professional road racing cyclist who currently rides for Garmin-Cervélo.^[1] The son of United States Bicycling Hall of Fame inductee John Vande Velde, Christian became professional in 1998 for US Postal.

He twice rode on the Tour de France team that brought Lance Armstrong to victory, in 1999 and 2001. In the 1999 Tour de France Vande Velde was for a time the leader of the youth classification; he did not complete the 2001 Tour de France. Christian Vande Velde moved to Liberty Seguros in 2004 and switched to Team CSC in 2005. During this time, he worked as a domestique, riding in support of varying team captains, even though the 2005 season saw Vande Velde taking chances of his own including a breakaway on 4th stage of the Eneco Tour of Benelux, which was eventually hampered when the peloton was led on a false route, meaning the riders of the breakaway had to wait for the peloton to get back on track, at which time the gap between the break and the peloton was reduced from six to four minutes with 43 kilometres to go.^[1]

In the 2006 Tour de France, he was a domestique on Team CSC for team captains Carlos Sastre and Fränk Schleck. Vande Velde was the best of the climbers in the team apart from Sastre and Schleck, whom he supported in the high mountain stages. On stage 16, he pulled for most of the early slopes of the Col de La Croix de Fer, after team-mates Sastre and Schleck attacked to put then race leader Floyd Landis under pressure. On stage 17 to Morzine, he again pulled for most of the day along with team-mate Jens Voigt and Matthias Kessler and Serhiy Honchar from T-Mobile.

With the team time trial win by Slipstream-Chipotle in Stage 1 of the 2008 Giro d'Italia, Vande Velde became the first American to wear the Maglia rosa since Andy Hampsten in 1988.^[2] Vande Velde finished the 2008 Tour de France in fourth place, 3'05" behind the winner Carlos Sastre and 17th in the Olympic road race in Beijing. In 2009 Vande Velde finished 8th in the overall standings for the Tour de France.

He and his wife Leah are the parents of Uma (3 years-old) and Madeline, born in February, 2009.^[3]

Vande Velde crashed out of the 2010 Giro d'Italia on the third stage^[4] with a suspected clavicle break. Coincidentally, in 2009 he was forced out of the Giro after a crash, also on stage 3.^[5]

Vande Velde withdrew from the 2010 Tour de France upon completing the second stage on Monday, July 5, 2010, with two broken ribs. The injury was suffered in a crash caused by oil spilled from a fallen motorcycle that had been carrying a television camera operator filming on the Stockeu pass descent.^[6]

Results

1999

1st Overall Redlands Bicycle Classic

1st Individual Pursuit UCI World Cup

3rd Overall Quatre Jours de Dunkerque

1st Best young rider classification

Held Best young riders jersey from Stages 2-7 Tour De France

2001

4th Overall Three Days of De Panne

5th Overall Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana

2002

1st Stage 1 TTT Volta a Catalunya

2005

1st Mountains classification Eneco Tour of Benelux

2006

1st Overall Tour de Luxembourg

2nd Overall Tour of Elk Grove

3rd Stage 14 Tour de France

9th Overall Tour of California

2007

1st Eindhoven Team Time Trial

2nd Overall Tour de Georgia

6th Overall Tour of California

2008

Champion 2008 USA Cycling Professional Tour

1st Stage 1 TTT Giro d'Italia

Held Maglia rosa from Stages 1-2

1st Overall Tour of Missouri

1st Stage 3 ITT

2nd Overall, Circuit de la Sarthe

1st Stage 2b

3rd Overall Tour of California

4th Overall Tour de France

7th Overall Tour de Georgia

1st Stage 4 TTT

2009

1st Stage 4 Paris–Nice

8th Overall Tour de France

Most Aggressive Rider Stage 7 Tour of California

2011

1st Stage 2 (TTT) Tour de France

2nd Overall 2011 USA Pro Cycling Challenge

4th Overall Tour of California

Grand Tour General Classification results timeline

Grand Tour	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Giro								114			52	WD	WD
Tour		85		WD			56		24	25	5	8	WD
Vuelta	90				25			31		39			58

WD = withdrew

References

1. ^ "Vaughters confirms Millar, Vande Velde, and Zabriskie". Cyclingnews.com. 2007-07-30. http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2007/jul07/jul30news2. Retrieved 2007-07-30. 
2. ^ "Christian Vande Velde Bio". http://www.velobios.com/riders.garmin2009.vandevelde.htm. 
3. ^ Cyclist Adds Flair to His Win NY Times, March 12, 2009
4. ^ http://velonews.competitor.com/?p=115576 VeloNews.com: Argyle angst: Vande Velde leaves Giro after crash
5. ^ http://velonews.competitor.com/?p=91901 VeloNews.com: Mixed day for Garmin at the Giro: Farrar second, CVV crashes out
6. ^ "Vande Velde retires from Tour de France". Associated Press. 2010-07-05. http://sports.yahoo.com/sc/news;_ylt=AmjhnR5GUYvQks8K1jRCwCB.grcF?slug=ap-tourdefrance-vandevelde. Retrieved 2010-07-05. 

External links

• VELOBIOS 2009 Rider Profile
• VeloNews.com: Vande Velde ready for Giro repeat (of 2008)

Persondata
Name	Vande Velde, Christian
Alternative names
Short description	Road bicycle racer
Date of birth	1976-05-22
Place of birth	Lemont, Illinois, USA
Date of death
Place of death