What a bummer, That crash was just plain nasty to watch on OLN
from Cycling news
Tour de France News Flash for July 7, 2003
Edited by Jeff Jones
Hamilton out of Tour
Tyler Hamilton’s dreams of riding a good Tour de France came to a bitter end in stage 1 after he was involved in the massive pileup with less than 500m to go. The crash was precipitated by Jose Enrique Gutierrez (Kelme) as the peloton wound up for a bunch sprint. Hamilton was one of many who came down, falling heavily on his left shoulder. He was immediately taken to hospital for examination, where it was confirmed that he had broken his left collarbone. It was an early exit for the CSC rider, who was tipped as a podium chance, and finished sixth in the prologue.
Other riders to come down included race leader Brad McGee and Lance Armstrong, who were relatively unhurt, and Jimmy Casper and Richard Virenque, who were more seriously injured.
Alessandro Petacchi won the stage from Robbie McEwen and Erik Zabel, while Brad McGee kept the yellow jersey
Rabobank’s Levi Leipheimer also came down hard in the crash, and according to Dutch journalists he broke a bone in his lower back. That means he will be out of the Tour, while sitting in 13th overall.
George Hincapie sustained cuts on his left knee, and Vjatceslav Ekimov had some scratches, team spokesman Jogi Muller said.
Muller said Armstrong bruised his right thigh and scratched his left shoulder.
French rider Jimmy Casper (fdjeux.com) flew over his handlebars and has a neck injury. A scan later showed no head injuries although it is unsure if he will be passed fit to continue.
Dutchman Marc Lotz (Rabobank), Fabio Baldato (Alessio), Spaniard Luis Perez (Cofidis) and Frenchman Franck Renier (La Boulangere) were all taken to be checked out.
http://sports.yahoo.com/sc/news?slug=tourdefrancedaily&prov=st&type=lgns
Yes, Lance did crash, but this news source is completely clueless. The dude’s name who won the stage is Alessandro Petacchi, not Alessandro Bertolini. It amazes me that news sources can get such major facts so screwed up. I mean, did they just completely make up that name?
yesterday when arriving at the airport with my bike, I was asked if Greg Lemond was going to win again this year…
OMG, that would be hilarious if it wasn’t so sad. Oh well, I have to admit, I’ve always enjoyed the fact that the sport I love is considered a bit bizarre by most of the rest of the country.
yesterday when arriving at the airport with my bike, I was asked if Greg Lemond was going to win again this year…
OMG, that would be hilarious if it wasn’t so sad. Oh well, I have to admit, I’ve always enjoyed the fact that the sport I love is considered a bit bizarre by most of the rest of the country.
Well, it’s all relative, I can live with people not knowing anything about a sport they don’t care for. I wouldn’t know who is going to win the next NASCAR race either.
More serious is the general lack of knowledge of people who should know better. On Canadian TV they had a show called talking to Americans, and they would get the Arkansas governor congratulate Canada on protecting its national igloo from global warming (this national igloo is a scaled down copy of the Capitol building and its where Canadian parliament is housed, or so the governor thinks. Come visit it sometime, it’s the igloo with the giant dome built over it :-).
Or Berkeley professors would sign petitions to stop the Manitoba sealhunt (Manitoba is a landlocked prairie province) or for bombarding rebels in Chechnya and Saskatchewan (a Canadian province).
And Dubya thanked Canadian prime minister Jean Poutine when told of his endorsement in the 2000 elections (Poutine is a “national dish” in Quebec).
Tyler not sure. it seems the team is evaluating the injury. after all he did the Giro with a broken elbow I believe…tough dude…just hope he is not going to be the next alex zulle, not to win a great tour because of repeated crashes.
he is really talented and tough.
That’s the greatest thing about Tyler, you know he will never disappoint you, he will continue when 197 other riders in the peloton would give up. But this injury may even be too tough for him, we’ll wait and see. It’s so sad for him, he was perfectly prepared for an upset.
But what can you do, half the peloton goes down, some are injured, others are fine. Tyler’s day will come, good things happen to good people.
And so Tyler continues. Unbelievable. Anybody ever tried to sleep, or eat breakfast, with a broken collarbone. Let alone ride a bike, and three rolls of tape on the bars doesn’t make it any sweeter. But as he has shown time and time again, the guy is special.
That’s exactly what I said to my wife last night. TH wasn’t going to be sleeping well for awhile. I broke my right CB in jr high, you either sleep flat on your back or not at all. On your stomach was just painful unless you prompt the bad shoulder up a bit, and heaven for bid yoiu roll over at night…
But I’m sure there’s much better DRUUUGGs they’re willing to give a pro athlete as opposed to a 12-13 yr old.
But how long do you think he will be able to hang? I can see sucking it up if they were 1/2 way or 2/3 through the race but for this to happen at stage 1. I don’t think he showed up just to be another “finisher”…
I broke my right CB in jr high, you either sleep flat on your back or not at all.
I think it depends on how it’s broken. When I broke mine a few years back, I couldn’t sleep on my back for a couple months. When I laid on my back, the pressure on my shoulder blade pushed my collar bone out of place and made it stick up through my skin. Very gross. Mine really should have been pinned. For the first 5 weeks or so I slept sitting in a chair.
On the plus side, I did get good at driving a manual tranny with just my left hand.
It definitely depends on the break. I broke my collarbone when I was 16 endoing off my BMX bike at the finish of a race. It was a clean break with no movement of the bones. In all honesty it wasn’t a very serious injury. I was fully healed and racing BMX bikes again 3 weeks later. I didn’t suffer during the healing process either. It was uncomfortable at times, but not agonizing. And I never took anything more than plain old Tylenol. Surely Tyler has something a little stronger and maybe, just maybe he got a lucky “break” that is manageable. I sure hope so anyway.
Well, it’s a double fracture so chances are slim that they are both “lucky”. The team time trial is coming up and the aerobars have got to be even worse than normal road bars with a broken CB. And they can’t afford to loose 10min on that stage, that would ruin Sastre’s Tour.
I did my first ride three weeks after a collarbone break, and it was iffy and painful. I taught spin classes the day after the crash, but on the spin bike you can sit up and hang one arm still (sling).
He’s foolish if he goes ahead with this, because all the movement and stress could lead to permanent non-union, which means bone graft surgery. If not kept still, the ends of the bone can heal seperately, and never connect.
