Tejay Van Garderen (Team BMC) is already fitting in well with his new teammates after signing from HTC-Highroad at the end of 2011.

The American all-rounder penned a three-year deal with the Swiss owned team and told Cyclingnews that the length of the contract was a key reason for choosing BMC over a number of other interested parties that had offered only two-year sanctuary.

That aside, Van Garderen has set his sights high, continually stating his ambitions to develop into a top three-week stage racer. For the short term at least those ambitions will have to be curtailed as he devotes his energies towards working for Cadel Evans at this year’s Tour de France.

But Van Garderen will still have his own opportunities at the Tour of California and Paris-Nice this spring. Both races will be important stepping stones and markers in his career if those ambitions of three-week heroics are to be fulfilled.