[Heidi]

After his crash during the fourth stage of the Vuelta, Phonak's captain Tyler Hamilton was taken to hospital in Castellón for precautionary x-rays. Fortunately for the American, his right wrist is not broken and he will be able to continue the race.

"Analysis of the images revealed that Tyler has suffered a severe strain to the ligaments along the ulna of his right wrist," stated Phonak team physician Dr. Thomas Klimaschka. "This is a lengthy and painful injury. It represents a certain handicap in terms of cycling, especially when changing gears and applying the brakes."

Two braces were constructed to help Hamilton tackle the next stage of the Vuelta without any pain. In order to stabilize the wrist, there is a night-time brace and another one for racing. "The racing wristband was made in such a way that it interferes as little as possible with Tyler's grip on the handlebar, yet still stabilises the wrist," Klimaschka added.

 

[Heidi]

UHG

 

[Heidi]

Of course, it couldn't have been too bad, he won the time trial yesterday!

 

[JMAC]

Wouldn;t it be easier if he just learned a little bike handling skills? I mean I;m no proffesional but mots pros don;t crash very much lol.

 

[wooglin]

Pros crash all the time. But they know how to fall. Hamilton doesn't seem to have mastered that.

 

[Zaphod]

It's pretty damned hard to master the art of falling at high speeds.

Ask Leipheimer and Beloki..

 

[chicodude]

It's pretty damned hard to master the art of falling at high speeds.

Ask Leipheimer and Beloki..

:Stupid: <------why isnt this a smilie?


There is no good way to fall at high speeds

 

[wooglin]

:Stupid: <------why isnt this a smilie?


There is no good way to fall at high speeds

Heh. I think you missed his point. But then again, I think he missed my point. Maybe we should just call this whole thing a wash?

 

[Olyroller]

There is no good way to fall at high speeds

Unless of course you're wearing full leathers, but then it just gets so dang hot.

 

[Silver]

He's going to start glowing in the dark from all the xrays soon....

 

[cycleman]

Did you see he got angry with the USPostal team the other day and started shouting at Beltran for not riding hard enough for Landis! Don't know why - Beltran has as much chance as Landis as doing well on GC. Good to see Heras demolish them all today - what a climber. Such a shame he wasn't in form for the Tour. He couldn't have challenged Lance over all because of the timetrials but would have been nice to see him on the climbs. Also did you see Hamilton's annoying comments about winning on Sept 11. He does annoy me. Something very cliquey about all those lot - like Armstrong not being able to have a good word about Ulrich in the 2003 tour but congratulating Hamilton for waiting for him instead. Admittedly Armstrong seems to have extended his gang to include Basso since his mother had cancer but that's equally annoying. Anyway, to whoever it was (someone on here) who shortsightedly thought that Landis might win the Vuelta hope you saw today's stage. I've nothing against Landis, he's obviously a great domestique and he seems to realise that by going to work for Hamilton (although maybe Phonak are assuming that Hamilton will be injured most of the time and want some backup) but come-on guys, you have to look beyond the Americans sometimes - there must be a dozen riders in the Vuelta who are better climbers than Floyd. And Heras is awesome.

 

[DBR X6 RIDER]

Did you see he got angry with the USPostal team the other day and started shouting at Beltran for not riding hard enough for Landis! Don't know why - Beltran has as much chance as Landis as doing well on GC. Good to see Heras demolish them all today - what a climber. Such a shame he wasn't in form for the Tour. He couldn't have challenged Lance over all because of the timetrials but would have been nice to see him on the climbs. Also did you see Hamilton's annoying comments about winning on Sept 11. He does annoy me. Something very cliquey about all those lot - like Armstrong not being able to have a good word about Ulrich in the 2003 tour but congratulating Hamilton for waiting for him instead. Admittedly Armstrong seems to have extended his gang to include Basso since his mother had cancer but that's equally annoying. Anyway, to whoever it was (someone on here) who shortsightedly thought that Landis might win the Vuelta hope you saw today's stage. I've nothing against Landis, he's obviously a great domestique and he seems to realise that by going to work for Hamilton (although maybe Phonak are assuming that Hamilton will be injured most of the time and want some backup) but come-on guys, you have to look beyond the Americans sometimes - there must be a dozen riders in the Vuelta who are better climbers than Floyd. And Heras is awesome.

You have a lot of pent up anger.

What's so annoying about Hamilton mentioning 9-11?? Being from the Northeast, chances are he knew several to many people that were involved and/or lost on that day.

Armstrong not having any good words about Ulrich?!?! I would think naming him as his main threat (which he does constantly) would be taken as a compliment - I know that's how I'd take it.
He said he wasn't totally sure if Ulrich was waiting or not - it was his observation. He has since said that Ulrich was likely just holding a medium tempo so that when he & Mayo caught back up that he wouldn't be stale for the finale. I wish I knew where I read that so I could post it - that was many brain-cells ago.
The reason he gave Hamilton kudos on that stage was it was obvious that Hamilton was making an effort to wait up.
Keep in mind that was probably one of the most stressful days that Lance ever had on a bike...he was convinced that he was going to lose the '03 Tour on that day. When you have a gazillion negative thoughts racing thru your head, it's hard to tell what is fact or fiction.

I do agree about there being many more riders that can outclimb the Americans in the Vuelta...just so you know I'm not totally flaming you.

edit - Got distracted and forgot to mention that Tyler may have won all 3 of the major Tours at least once by now if it wasn't for his incredibly bad luck. I give the guy major props for getting up, brushing himself off and getting back to the task at hand nearly EVERY time.

 

[JMAC]

Did you see he got angry with the USPostal team the other day and started shouting at Beltran for not riding hard enough for Landis! Don't know why - Beltran has as much chance as Landis as doing well on GC. Good to see Heras demolish them all today - what a climber. Such a shame he wasn't in form for the Tour. He couldn't have challenged Lance over all because of the timetrials but would have been nice to see him on the climbs. Also did you see Hamilton's annoying comments about winning on Sept 11. He does annoy me. Something very cliquey about all those lot - like Armstrong not being able to have a good word about Ulrich in the 2003 tour but congratulating Hamilton for waiting for him instead. Admittedly Armstrong seems to have extended his gang to include Basso since his mother had cancer but that's equally annoying. Anyway, to whoever it was (someone on here) who shortsightedly thought that Landis might win the Vuelta hope you saw today's stage. I've nothing against Landis, he's obviously a great domestique and he seems to realise that by going to work for Hamilton (although maybe Phonak are assuming that Hamilton will be injured most of the time and want some backup) but come-on guys, you have to look beyond the Americans sometimes - there must be a dozen riders in the Vuelta who are better climbers than Floyd. And Heras is awesome.

Couldn't agree more Also the TdF according to many riders none of the big names that is, isn;t really a big mountain climbing tour compaired to the giro and i think even the vuelta I don't think lance could win the giro. I think the only reason he blows everyone away on the mountain satges of the tdf is because all the true climbers are dead tired by that time.

 

[cycleman]

sorry chimp, didn't mean to sound too angry. What you say about Lance is interesting, I hadn't read that and it sounds reasonable. Maybe I'll have to revise my opinion but I've got rather an impression of a "them and us" attitude from him - such strong team loyalty I don't find particularly appealing. But maybe I'm wrong. (I do have to point out though that when he made those remarks about it being Hamilton and not Ulrich who waited, it wasn't the heat of the moment but sometime after - it still seems an incredibly petty thing to have said but maybe it just came out sounding wrong).
Nothing wrong with Hamilton mentioning sept 11, just don't see why it was so important to him that an American won. I thought Landis's comments were much more sensible - he said he couldn't really see the connection between what happened and a bike race.
As for Armstrong not being the best climber - not sure about that. I expect he could adapt to those tours if he concentrated on them and although i still think Heras and maybe others could maybe beat him by a little on true climbs, remember there are still 3 timetrials in the Vuelta this year. I think also his style would suit the short hilly stages, whereas Ulrich might struggle more. How they'd get on if he did the Tour and Giro or Vuelta in one season as Simoni, Heras, Mancebo etc have is another question.
When would Hamilton have won all those things? - I admit he's good, but i wish he'd eat properly, then maybe his bones wouldn't break so easily.