Cadel Evans continues to ride with a broken left elbow but he will have a tough time winning the prize, as he exploded on the Madaleine and collapsed in tears into a teammates arms at the finish, losing the yellow jersey and fading almost 8 minutes out of the lead. If he can finish with a decent place, or achieve a great solo breakaway, like Tyler Hamilton's 2003 142 km solo breakaway stage victory with a broken collarbone, pass the drug tests (unlike Tyler) and hold back any more tears, then he will deserve it. An uphill battle, appropriately.
Simon Gerrans crashed 7 km into a 189 km stage 8, made it through the next 182 km riding with a broken left arm, but could not start the next stage with his arm in a massive, full length cast. Too late now to cut off the cast, replace it with a light splint (or better yet, some tape, like Cadel) and press on. Sorry Simon.
Frank Schleck never got back on the bike after breaking his collarbone on stage three. Sure, it was a nasty crash, and I was a bit relieved to see he was conscious, but HTFU, Frank! If you don't get back on the bike and ride that pave, you can't start the next day's stage.
Lance -- it looks ugly, the gashes, the blood and the torn shorts and jersey, but nothing broken. HTFU Lance. You could still get the trophy!
Cadel hides the pain:
... a new candidate as Robbie Hunter breaks a bone in his arm (another elbow -- looks like the right elbow for a change) near the start of Stage 10, but finishes with the Peleton and declares his intention to keep riding, and his anger at the "tool" who dumped it in front of him, leaving him nowhere to go. But sadly, he is not at the start of Stage 11, leaving Garmin Transitions short one sprinter.
Time for me to get back on the bike and HTFU!
Erm Frank's collar bone broke in 5 places..... basically he no longer had a collar bone at the time of the crash it was that bad, they had to pin it in 5 places and bond the bone.
ReplyDeleteI think out of all of them Frank has the genuine excuse from his mum not to ride.
Sure, Frank has a genuine excuse. After that crash he is lucky to be alive and not paralyzed or brain damaged. And the cobbles would have been a real challenge with a collarbone freshly split into 5 pieces.
ReplyDeleteBut I think Cadel, Tyler and Firenzo Magni had excuses also, and look what they managed. The collarbone really isn't good for much in any event.
Excuse, yes; HTFH award, no.
So when do we expect you to be back on the bike ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm back. If Cadel can keep riding with a fracture in the elbow the same/next day, then I can handle a short ride 8 weeks after my accident, 6+ weeks after surgery.
ReplyDeleteI rode 20 km on Saturday slowly, 40 km on Sunday a little less slowly, and will try to work up gradually the next two weekends. I'm still not supposed to put much weight on the arm.
Cycling News reports Frank Schleck already "enjoyed his first day back on the bike on Monday, after a successful surgery last week."
ReplyDelete“It’s going to be another few weeks before I can think about racing again. It’s all day-by-day. For my shape and my body it’s good to have a three-week race in you. I’ll go for the Vuelta."