# Tyler Farrar

Tyler Farrar (born June 2, 1984) is an American former road racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2003 and 2017 for the Jelly Belly–Carlsbad Clothing Company, Health Net–Maxxis, Cofidis, Garmin–Sharp and Team Dimension Data squads.
Farrar's achievements include winning the 2009 Circuit Franco-Belge and the 2009 and 2010 Vattenfall Cyclassics. In Grand Tours, Farrar has won six individual stages, as well as assisting in two team time trial wins.

## Cycling career

Farrar started racing at 13, and rode for Jelly Belly–Carlsbad Clothing Company in 2003, Health Net–Maxxis in 2004, and Cofidis in 2006 and 2007. In April 2006, he crashed near the finish of the Circuit de la Sarthe, which resulted in a broken collarbone, causing him to miss most of the season. For the 2008 season, he transferred to Slipstream–Chipotle.
He has won stages in the Giro d'Italia, Vuelta a España, Tour de France, Three Days of De Panne, and the USA Pro Cycling Challenge. He wore the yellow jersey on stage three of the 2008 Tour of California after winning intermediate sprint points during stage two.
Until the end of his career in 2017, Farrar lived in the Belgian city of Ghent, where he was made an honorary citizen in 2012. He was fluent in Dutch and was popular in Flanders.
In May 2011, Farrar withdrew from the Giro d'Italia as a mark of respect for his friend and training partner Wouter Weylandt, who was killed in an accident during the race. This tragedy occurred on stage 3 and on stage 4 the teams agreed not to race at all as they completed the entire stage at a steady pace with each team taking ten kilometers at the front with no attacks being made and the peloton staying together the entire time. Three kilometres from the finish Weylandt's eight teammates on Team Leopard-Trek came to the front and were also joined by Farrar, even though he was riding for Garmin-Cervelo. The nine riders rode together side by side as the rest of the peloton stayed back and as they approached the finish they did so arm in arm for the final fifty or so meters, all crossing the line together. The entire Leopard-Trek team and Farrar bowed out of the race following this tribute to their fallen teammate.
On July 4, 2011, Farrar won his first Tour de France stage, Stage 3 from Olonne-sur-Mer to Redon, becoming the first American to win a stage of the Tour on the Fourth of July. It would be ten years before another American would win a Tour de France stage.
Farrar crashed four times in the 2012 Tour de France, including a sprint-finish crash, after which he stormed the Argos–Shimano team bus to confront Tom Veelers, whom he blamed for the incident. He later took his first two wins of the season at the 2012 USA Pro Cycling Challenge. In the opening stage of that race, Farrar arrived in Telluride with a field of 57 riders and won a reduced bunch sprint at the finish. Afterwards, he stated that he was surprised to have survived the mountainous terrain to be able to contend for the sprint. Farrar won again in the fifth stage of the race, dedicating the win to his former Madison partner Mike Creed, who had been raising money for the victims of the Waldo Canyon fires. Due to his two wins he consolidated enough points to win the green jersey. Later in the season, Farrar crashed heavily during the first stage of the Tour of Britain, reportedly suffering a concussion. In October, Farrar was given clearance to train by the team doctor, Prentice Steffen, who stated: "The health of the athlete is always our top priority."
Farrar has a reputation for causing or being involved in crashes. Alessandro Petacchi noted that Farrar had crashed 18 times in the 2013–2014 seasons, commenting "There is probably a reason for this". Farrar denies using reckless or uncoordinated tactics, and ascribed most of his numerous crashes to "realities of modern cycling".
After seven years with Slipstream–Chipotle, Farrar signed with MTN–Qhubeka for the 2015 and 2016 seasons and again for the 2017 season. After riding in the 2017 Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, Farrar announced his retirement from competition.
When Farrar took the stage victory in the 2011 Tour de France it gave him a stage win in all three grand tours. Tyler Hamilton is the only other American to have accomplished this.

## Post-cycling

After retiring from cycle racing, Farrar became a firefighter in Kirkland, Washington, as part of the City of Kirkland Fire Department.

## Major results
### 2001

    10th Time trial, UCI Junior Road World Championships

### 2002

    1st Overall Tour de l'Abitibi
       1st Stage 4

### 2003

    9th Ronde van Vlaanderen U23

### 2004

    1st Time trial, National Under-23 Road Championships
    1st Stage 7 Tour de l'Avenir
    2nd Criterium, National Road Championships
    9th Paris–Tours Espoirs
    10th La Côte Picarde

### 2005 (1 pro win)

    1st Criterium, National Road Championships
    1st Stage 4 Ronde de l'Isard
    1st Stage 2 Tour de l'Avenir
    2nd Road race, National Under-23 Road Championships
    2nd Grand Prix de Waregem
    5th Wachovia Classic
    10th Time trial, UCI Under-23 Road World Championships

### 2006

    5th Overall Tour du Poitou-Charentes
    5th Grand Prix de Rennes

### 2007 (1)

    GP CTT Correios de Portugal
       1st Points classification
       1st Stage 2
    9th Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne

### 2008 (1)

    1st Overall Tour of the Bahamas
       1st Points classification
       1st Stages 2 & 3
    1st Stage 1 Tour du Poitou-Charentes
    1st Stage 4 (TTT) Tour de Georgia
    4th Univest Grand Prix
    5th Paris–Tours
    6th Philadelphia International Championship
    8th Lehigh Valley Classic
    9th Grand Prix d'Isbergues

### 2009 (11)

    1st Overall Tour de Wallonie-Picarde
       1st Points classification
       1st Stages 1 & 2
    1st Overall Delta Tour Zeeland
       1st Points classification
       1st Prologue
    1st Vattenfall Cyclassics
    Eneco Tour
       1st Stages 1, 2 & 4
    1st Stage 3 Tirreno–Adriatico
    1st Stage 11 Vuelta a España

### 2010 (8)

    1st Overall Delta Tour Zeeland
       1st Points classification
    1st Vattenfall Cyclassics
    1st Scheldeprijs
    Giro d'Italia
       1st Stages 2 & 10
    Vuelta a España
       1st Stages 5 & 21
    1st Stage 3 Three Days of De Panne
    2nd GP Ouest–France
    3rd Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
    5th Tour of Flanders
    6th Coppa Bernocchi
    9th Gent–Wevelgem
    10th UCI World Ranking

### 2011 (4)

    1st Trofeo Palma de Mallorca
    1st Trofeo Cala Millor
    Tour de France
       1st Stages 2 (TTT) & 3
    1st Stage 2 Tirreno–Adriatico
    1st Stage 2 Ster ZLM Toer
    3rd Dwars door Vlaanderen
    3rd Gent–Wevelgem
    4th Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
    10th Road race, UCI Road World Championships

### 2012 (2)

    USA Pro Cycling Challenge
       1st Points classification
       1st Stages 1 & 5
    1st Stage 4 (TTT) Giro d'Italia
    1st Stage 2 (TTT) Tour of Utah
    2nd Overall Tour of Qatar
       1st Stage 2 (TTT)
    2nd Scheldeprijs
    5th Overall Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen

### 2013 (2)

    1st Stage 4 Tour of California
    2nd Trofeo Palma de Mallorca
    2nd Trofeo Campos–Santanyí–Ses Salines
    3rd Overall Tour de l'Eurométropole
       1st Stage 3
    4th Paris–Tours
    6th Scheldeprijs

### 2014 (1)

    Tour of Beijing
       1st Points classification
       1st Stage 3
    2nd Dwars door Vlaanderen
    2nd Scheldeprijs
    4th Vattenfall Cyclassics
    8th Overall Tour de l'Eurométropole
    8th E3 Harelbeke
    10th Overall Ster ZLM Toer
       1st Points classification

### 2015

    9th Scheldeprijs

### Grand Tour general classification results timeline

| Grand Tour | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
| Giro d'Italia | DNF | DNF | DNF | DNF | — | 147 | — | — |
| Tour de France | 148 | DNF | 158 | 151 | — | — | 154 | — |
| Vuelta a España | DNF | 141 | DNF | — | 124 | — | — | 155 |

### Classics results timeline

| Monument | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
| Milan–San Remo | — | — | DNF | DNF | 42 | 46 | 109 | 94 | — | — | — | — |
| Tour of Flanders | — | DNF | 53 | — | 5 | 13 | 99 | 46 | 47 | 58 | 117 | 121 |
| Paris–Roubaix | — | — | 57 | — | OTL | 28 | 29 | 58 | 67 | 54 | DNF | OTL |
| Liège–Bastogne–Liège | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career |
| Giro di Lombardia | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career |
| Classic | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
| Omloop Het Nieuwsblad | — | DNF | 127 | 99 | 3 | — | — | — | 70 | 51 | — | — |
| Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne | — | 9 | 77 | 102 | DNF | 4 | 18 | — | 81 | 66 | — | — |
| E3 Saxo Bank Classic | DNF | — | — | — | — | — | — | 44 | 8 | 64 | 82 | 65 |
| Gent–Wevelgem | — | DNF | — | — | 9 | 3 | 55 | DNF | 131 | DNF | 80 | 96 |
| Dwars door Vlaanderen | DNF | 114 | — | — | — | 3 | 50 | — | 2 | 52 | — | — |
| Scheldeprijs | — | — | — | — | 1 | DNF | 2 | 6 | 2 | 9 | 60 | 117 |
| Hamburg Cyclassics | DNF | 73 | — | 1 | 1 | — | — | — | 4 | 55 | — | 146 |
| GP Ouest-France | — | 111 | — | — | 2 | — | — | — | 96 | — | — | — |
| Paris–Tours | 63 | — | 5 | 46 | — | — | — | 4 | — | — | — | — |
Legend :
| — | Did not compete |
| DNF | Did not finish |

## Endorsements

Farrar appears in the opening titles of ITV London morning weather forecasts. The forecasts are sponsored by Transitions Lenses who also sponsor Farrar's cycling team. In 2010, Transition Lenses featured Farrar in its online advertisements.