The surprisingly unpredictable first ten days of competition at the 101st edition of the Tour de France saw biggest title contenders crash out of the race or fall out of contention, so fairly little attention has been paid to far to those, who managed to performed above initial expectations. The Criterium du Dauphine winner Andrew Talansky was regarded as the best American hope for a podium result, but while the talented Garmin-Sharp leader saw all his general classification ambitions fading as a consequence of two crashes, Tejay Van Gerderen avoided major obstacles to sit seventh overall on the first rest day.

There was a huge uncertainty around Van Garderen’s disposition when this year’s Tour de France kicked off in Leeds, as the 2014 season was so far anything but consistent for the 25-year old BMC leader. The American rider started impressively at the Tour of Oman, where he was surpassed only by Chris Froome (Team Sky) up the Green Mountain, but didn’t manage to add equally respectable results in the following months after an illness and crash at the Tour de Romandie significantly hindered his Tour preparations.

However, despite all the difficulties Van Garderen incessantly emphasized his confidence ahead of the season’s biggest objective, claiming that very thorough preparations during the winter-break served him as a solid foundations for his high disposition and so he would get things right even with some race days missing from the initial programme.

Sitting seventh in the general classification, 3:56 down on race leader Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and with confidence about his form, the BMC leader expects to improve his position when the action unfolds in the Alps and Pyrenees, especially during the tough last week of competition.

"You see a lot of guys who are strong in the first week and then start to fade in the third week," van Garderen said. "I think that if I can just stay consistent, then maybe I can move up a couple of places and... you never know!"

In regards to the dramatic happenings of opening ten days of the Franch three-week event, Van Garderen admitted that crashes, many times absolutely unavoidable, are an integral part of the bike racing and even though he went down during the seventh stage, was eventually pleased not to share the fate of biggest pre-race favorites, Froome and Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo).

"Crashes are just part of the sport, and sometimes they're just unavoidable," van Garderen said. "Sometimes you get up and are like, 'Man, that was stupid!' I mean, just about all of my crashes were pretty much unavoidable. That one on stage seven is the only big one I've had so far, though. That one was quite painful."

"But the Tour's always a dangerous race - the most dangerous race of the year," he said. "This is my fourth Tour now, and at every Tour I've done there have been some nasty crashes, so I don't think this year's really any different to any other year."

While early exits of Team Sky and Tinkoff-Saxo leaders, on stage fifth and tenth respectively, proved than anything could happen, the 25-year American didn’t expect Nibali to get himself into similar kind of trouble and was full of praise for bike handling skills of the race leader.

"Anyone can crash, but I don't expect him to - and neither would I want him to, of course - as he's one of the most incredible bike handlers I've ever seen," said van Garderen. "He's almost like [renowned skilful bike-handler] Peter Sagan in that respect, and can do things that most riders can't. If Nibali gets himself into a bad situation, in which 99 per cent of us would go down, he seems to be able to get out of it."

He also complemented French riders who managed to animate the action in the first half of their home grand tour race, with Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) being so far the most impressive, alongside Ag2r La Mondiale duo made of young Romain Bardet and experienced Jean-Christophe Peraud.

"There's a group of French guys who are looking really strong," van Garderen said. "They've been really impressive so far.

"I think Thibaut Pinot [sixth overall] will be just fine, as he's already been top 10 in the Tour and the Vuelta, and is looking really strong right now, so I see him being able to hang on," said the American. "Jean-Christophe Peraud [Ag2r; eighth overall] is a solid rider, who's older and smarter, and knows what his limits are, but the one question mark for me is Romain Bardet [Peraud's teammate; fourth overall]. Obviously he's a great bike rider, a super talent, and he could very well hang on, but he's the one I don't know as much about."