Tom Danielson was in good form on the final day of the Tour de France, being smiling and talkative due to the fact that his debut in the race was a very successful one. Starting the event at 33 years of age, he rode strongly in the mountains, placed eleventh in Saturday’s time trial and ended the three week contest ninth overall.
It was an important milestone for the Garmin-Cervélo rider, who has been passed over for selection by various teams several times before due to illness or injury. Some even doubted if he would be awarded selection this year, despite third overall in the Tour of California and ninth in the Tour de Suisse, but team manager Jonathan Vaughter’s faith in him has been rewarded.
“It is a dream, although obviously you always have to have goals and stuff like that,” he said, when asked by VeloNation if top ten overall was a pre-race target. “After I was behind the crash on the first day and lost two minutes…it kind of took the pressure off…I was kind of like,‘well, we will worry about the team time trial and the other elements.’
“Then when I got to the mountains and on the first day I climbed with the leaders on the first day, I was like ‘holy crap.’ I think from that point on I believed top ten was an option for me.”
Danielson has previously finished seventh, sixth and ninth in the Vuelta a España, winning a stage in 2006. The Tour de France ride surpasses those due to the standard of the field in the race; he admits that he had to battle hard for the result.
“It really got difficult some days, there were some days when I thought, ‘okay, it is not going to happen,” he continued. “But then things started to come together, I felt good and I stayed strong a whole time. I’m really, really happy.”
Danielson is still evolving as a rider and believes it should be possible to return to the race next year and finish higher up.
For more, see the full interview below: