Despite lamenting the lack of time trial kilometres at the Tour de France this season, Tejay van Garderen has told PEZ Cycling that he still has a good chance of bettering his fifth place from the 2012 and 2014 seasons.

“I’ve taken a look at the parcours, it’s a good one and I do like it. I do think it’s a pity that there is no proper time trial. Christian Prudhomme (Tour de France organizer) was quoted saying that “the winner of the Tour should be the most complete rider” which is why he put in the stages in the Ardennes and the stage on the cobbles and the big mountains, which I agree with. The Tour de France winner should be a complete rider, but I think he’s missing one key element, to make it a truly complete rider who wins. But that being said I think there are plenty of chances that we can take time on some of those pure climbers. Some of those crosswind days, the cobble stones and having the team around me to help shepherd me through some of those hectic days, that can be an advantage to me.”

“We are the team time trial World champions, we are a strong Classics team for the cobble stones and in the cross winds of Utrecht I think we will be one of the strongest teams, so we definitely have plenty of chances to take.”

Van Garderen will recon the course later in the year and he will pay special attention to the opening 14km time trial, where he is hopeful he can gain a big advantage if the weather is not so good.

“In Utrecht it can be really windy. If we get a stiff head wind that means we cold be out there for longer than 20 minutes. A real specialist compared to someone who isn’t so good against the clock could mean 45 seconds.”

Van Garderen is aware of just how tough the competition for even a top five spot will be, with lots of pure climbers turning up to the mountainous route in 2015, along with the three big favourites: Chris Froome, Alberto Contador and Vincenzo Nibali.

“A lot of the pure climbers are pretty inspired by the Tour this year because of the lack of time trialing, you’re going to have the Quintanas back, Joaquim Rodriguez is coming back and then obviously the big three; Nibali, Froome and Contador. Like I said, last year I felt I was on the cusp of breaking through to being spoken about in the same breath as these guys, I just kept hitting road blocks. When things are really going well for me I don’t see why I shouldn’t be able to mix in it with these guys.”

Van Garderen experienced outright leadership of the BMC team at the tour de France for the first time in his career last season, and he said it was more stressful than he had wanted it to be. However, he hopes it will serve him well for future Tours.

“To be the outright leader at the Tour, especially with the build up I had, it was a lot more stressful than I wanted it to be. In the spring I had some good results in some key races where I could take a lot of confidence from, like in Oman and in Cataluña, but there were so many bumps on the road on the way to the Tour that we all came to the Tour with a bog question mark. How’s Tejay and what’s he going to do? OK we will look after him but be prepared for things going wrong because with just having a hip fracture and a crash in Romandie and a bad Dauphine, tensions were high. But yeah it was definitely a great experience; it taught me a lot about leadership and how to use the leadership skills. With everyone kind of holding their breath and I was having to calm everyone down even though I was screaming on the inside. It was definitely a good experience and I’m hoping this year will be a smoother experience. Now that I have one under my belt, we can go and get the job done and we start ticking all the boxes.”

Van Garderen said he thinks he could have gone better than fifth in 2014 had he not had so many crashes and he says he doesn’t see why he cant improve on fifth again at the 2015 edition of the world’s biggest race.

“I think it’s possible. Last year I felt that I was on the cusp of a real break through and being one of the main riders, but things just kept getting in the way that just kind of stunted that a little. Getting sick before Paris-Nice and crashing in Romandie, it just felt like I really never reached that level that I was showing that I was capable of reaching. So if I have everything go smoothly, I think even last year I could have been a couple of places higher, this year I think will be the same.”