Teejay Van Garderen

It's cool to see this kid make it big.  I had the pleasure of riding with him a few years back.  There were about 25 of us on the RockyMounts squadra including Teejay's father, Marcel.  Teejay happened to join us.  I was in the front of the pack with him for a while.  I had no idea he was as good as he was.  I think he was 18 at the time and pretty humble.  We chatted a bit about various things and he told me he was going to try and become pro some day.  Wow - did he ever.  He's made it to the big time.  I should have realized this when he dropped me and the other 23 people, like a bad habit, on the last 10k of the ride.

Read on in his HTC-Columbia debut at CyclingNews.  The boy finished in top 10 (should have been better) with the likes of Contador and Leipheimer.