Description:
The bicyclist Christian Vandevelde (Team Slipstream) at the international cycling event Giro d'Italia.
The photo is takes at the start of the 17een lap a Sondrio - Lombardy - Italy - 28 may 2008 -
Christian Vandevelde (born 22 May 1976 in Lemont, Illinois, U.S.), sometimes referred to as Christian Vande Velde, is an American professional road bicycle racer who currently rides for Team Slipstream. Son of United States Bicycling Hall of Fame inductee, John Vandevelde, Christian became professional in 1998 for US Postal. He twice rode on the Tour de France team that brought Lance Armstrong to victory, in the 1999 Tour de France Vandevelde himself wore the young rider's jersey, the maillot blanc, for a time, while he did not complete the 2001 Tour de France. Christian Vandevelde moved to Liberty Seguros in 2004 and switched to Team CSC in 2005. He has always worked as a domestique, riding in support of varying team captains, even though the 2005 season saw Vandevelde taking chances of his own including a breakaway on 4th stage of the Eneco Tour of Benelux, which was eventually hampered when the peloton was led on a false route, meaning the riders of the breakaway had to wait for the peloton to get back on track, at which time the gap between the break and the peloton was reduced from six to four minutes with 43 kilometres to go. In the 2006 Tour de France, he was a domestique on Team CSC for team captains Carlos Sastre and Fränk Schleck. Vandevelde was the best of the climbers in the team apart from Sastre and Schleck, whom he supported brilliantly in the high mountain stages. On stage 16, he pulled for most of the early slopes of the Col de La Croix de Fer, after team-mates Sastre and Schleck attacked to put then race leader Floyd Landis under pressure. Later in the stage, he was also seen helping the team again and again, by delivering the water-bottles to his team-mates. On stage 17 to Morzine, he again pulled for most of the day along with team-mate Jens Voigt and Matthias Kessler and Serhiy Honchar from T-Mobile. Vandevelde will ride with Team Slipstream in 2008. With the (TTT) win by Team Slipstream in Stage 1 of the 2008 Giro d'Italia, Vandevelde becomes the first American to wear the Maglia rosa since Andy Hampsten in 1988.

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