Tyler Farrar’s bad crash during the Tour of Britain and subsequent concussion has led to the Washington rider being forced to withdraw from the USA team for the world road race championships.
The Garmin-Sharp rider came down in a stage one fall last Sunday involving Mark Cavendish and several others. While the Briton suffered no serious after-effects, Farrar was soon diagnosed with concussion and put under medical supervision.
Despite his hopes to recover in time, an often-frustrating year has continued with the decision to withdraw from the lineup.
“It’s disappointing to not have Tyler in the team this year,” said Jim Miller, the USA Cycling vice-president of athletics. “But I fully understand the seriousness of his concussion and support the decision to take the necessary time required to fully recover. We wish him a speedy recovery and are looking forward to his returning to full health soon.”
The empty slot will filled by the in-form Andrew Talansky, who rode above expectations to take five top ten stage finishes and seventh overall in the Vuelta a España.
The 23 year old Californian is a team-mate of Farrar’s on the Garmin-Sharp squad and said that he had mixed feelings about taking up the slot.
“While it is a privilege to represent the United States in the Worlds Road Race, I wish it were under different circumstances because you never want to see someone unable to compete due to an injury,” he said today. “My Garmin-Sharp-Barracuda teammate, Tyler, is continuing to recover from his crash. I will do my best race in honour of his spot. We have a strong team and I know that myself and my Team USA teammates will race hard thinking of him, wishing him continued recovery.”
While several riders will compete in the trade team time trial tomorrow, the first-ever such event in the elite worlds, the first official race for the USA elite men’s team will be the individual time trial on XXX. Boulder and BMC Racing Team duo Taylor Phinney and Tejay van Garderen will line out in that event chasing medals, then they, Talansky and six others will do the elite road race on Sunday week.
The others on the team will be Brent Bookwalter (Athens, Ga./BMC Racing), Matthew Busche (Wauwatosa, Wisc./RadioShack-Nissan-Trek), Timmy Duggan (Nederland, Colo./Liquigas-Cannondale), Lucas Euser (Boulder, Colo./Spidertech p/b C10), Chris Horner (San Diego, Calif./RadioShack-Nissan-Trek) and Alex Howes (Golden, Colo./Garmin-Sharp-Barracuda).
USA Cycling team for men’s Elite road race:
Brent Bookwalter (Athens, Ga./BMC Racing)
Matthew Busche (Wauwatosa, Wisc./RadioShack-Nissan-Trek)
Timmy Duggan (Nederland, Colo./Liquigas-Cannondale)
Lucas Euser (Boulder, Colo./Spidertech p/b C10)
Chris Horner (San Diego, Calif./RadioShack-Nissan-Trek)
Alex Howes (Golden, Colo./Garmin-Sharp-Barracuda)
Taylor Phinney (Boulder, Colo./BMC Racing) — also competing in TT
Andrew Talansky (Napa, Calif./Garmin-Sharp-Barracuda)
Tejay van Garderen (Boulder, Colo./BMC Racing) — also competing in TT