Andrew Talansky, who led Garmin-Sharp in the Tour de France this year, will ride the Vuelta a Espana this year to help his teammates Daniel Martin and Ryder Hesjedal.

He crashed out of the Tour de France and says that for his 2015 Tour de France ambitions, the best thing for him was to take part in the Vuelta.

“The easiest thing would have been to race at Colorado (U.S Pro Challenge), but in order to set yourself up for the next season, you need a grand tour in your legs, and I only did half the Tour, so that was going to be a detriment to 2015,” Talansky told VeloNews.

“This will help me moving toward returning to the Tour next year. This is the first stepping-stone toward that.”

Talansky endured a month of highs and lows in France, winning the prestigious Criterium du Dauphine ahead of a field full of Tour de France contenders before crashing out of the Tour less than a month later.

As a result of his crash and his teammates ambitions at the Spanish Grand Tour, Talansky harbors hopes only for a stage win at best.

“If I can come away with a stage win, that would be exciting,” he said of his Vuelta plan. “You have to be realistic. It took me months and months to get to the level that I was at [in] the Dauphiné and Tour. And I haven’t had that time to prepare for this Vuelta.”

“We have a great team here. For Dan and Ryder, from the Giro onwards, their sights have transitioned to the Vuelta. I am happy to be here to support those guys,” Talansky said. “We have two great leaders for the Vuelta, and I am excited to help them.”

Talansky is filled with confidence that his teammates can perform well and bring home a good result for Garmin. And his teammate Rder Hesjedal, co-leader of the team for the race, shares the same views.

“Everyone has the legs, it’s a matter of how it unfolds. Are we capable of multiple guys up there in the race? I think so,” Hesjedal said. “I think we’ll be better off for it. All three of us are capable of being up there (Hesjedal, Martin and Talansky).”

“It’s a super-deep field here, but that’s what you want. You want the best riders at any race,” Hesjedal said. “Every grand tour is hard. The Vuelta should be a great race.”