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01-14-04, 10:08 AM
By jhenderson@denverpost.com
John Henderson
Denver Post Sports Writer
Wednesday, January 14, 2004 -
BOULDER - When Tyler Hamilton is sweating up Magnolia Road in Boulder Canyon, it suddenly becomes Alpe d'Huez. When he is speeding along his loop around Boulder, he's on the time trial to Besancon. When he's cycling the final stretch to his home north of the city, Sunshine Canyon Road is the Champs Elysees and his house is the Tour de France podium in Paris.
"Not a day goes by," Hamilton said, "that I don't think about it."
He doesn't think about crashing on Stage 1 of last year's Tour. He doesn't think about winning Stage 16 despite a broken collarbone. He doesn't think about the lives he changed with an effort that almost upstaged Lance Armstrong. Hamilton is thinking about upstaging Armstrong in Paris. On the podium. In cycling's most popular event.
Hamilton thinks he has taken the necessary steps to break Armstrong's quest for a record sixth Tour victory. The biggest step was a controversy that spanned the breadth of Europe's huge cycling community but one that barely registered a blip on the American sporting scene.
On the night after Christmas, the former University of Colorado skier sat down in his beautiful home overlooking Boulder Canyon and discussed his shot at winning this July's Tour, his captivating performance last year and his new fame, however limited, in his home country.
Hamilton, 32, always thought he could win the Tour de France. Last year's fourth place-finish, despite the painful injury, further steeled his resolve. However, in a move that shocked all of cycling, in late summer Hamilton switched teams from Denmark-based CSC, the top team finisher in the Tour, to the underachieving Swiss team, Phonak.
It was the equivalent of Pedro Martinez leaving Hamilton's beloved Boston Red Sox for the Baltimore Orioles. But then again, a cyclist's life is a lot shorter than a major-league pitcher's.
"In a selfish sort of way, I'm 32 years old," said Hamilton, a few hours after a 6-hour, 45-minute ride. "I'm not going to do this until I'm 40. And I don't ever want to look back and say I wish I did everything I could to win the Tour de France. I have to try and win. I have to think that I can win.
"I have to think that my team's going to support me 100 percent."
Team talent vs. solo support
For cycling teams, there are two ways to ride the Tour de France. U.S. Postal Service has eight cyclists who do everything they can to help Armstrong win the Tour. That means the others don't win stages. They don't leave him unprotected on the course. Then there are teams that go for numerous stage wins to build depth in an effort to win the overall team competition.
In that regard, CSC was the best in the world. Unfortunately for Hamilton, he found himself alone during some stages, without a teammate to block the wind while he worked his way to the leaders.
"We had a lot of objectives," said Hamilton, the VeloNews' North American rider of the year. "U.S. Postal had one. You can't say either one is wrong. Both definitely get a lot of publicity for their sponsors. But in a selfish sort of way, I want a team built around me like U.S. Postal is built around Lance.
"And Phonak came to me with that opportunity."
Money was not a major issue, Hamilton said. Though he wouldn't give figures, he and CSC officials say both offers were close. The issue was his role. He discussed it with team manager Bjarne Riis, a former Tour de France winner, before the 2003 Tour. He went back to him after receiving the Phonak offer.
It was a difficult meeting. Hamilton credits Riis for signing him two years ago and getting him to where he is today. Riis told him that he's still their leader but Hamilton wasn't convinced.
"We can't take the risk, either, to wait and hope that it's going to come around," Hamilton said. "Because I know the way Bjarne works. He wants to get as much out of his team so the sponsor's happy so they'll come back and sponsor the team and hopefully put more money into the team."
Riis, contacted Friday at his home in Lucca, Italy, said he believes Hamilton could have won the Tour with CSC but wasn't willing to sacrifice the whole team.
"I understand what he's saying, but he has to be as strong as Lance Armstrong," Riis said. "When he's as strong as Armstrong, that's when he gets that support."
Rallying the troops
It's clear Hamilton has support now. Phonak, which didn't even qualify for last year's Tour, has signed nine new riders, including Spain's highly coveted Oscar Sevilla. Hamilton made recommendations on team riders and approved of each hire.
Phonak still must earn a wild-card spot for the Tour, but Hamilton said if you took the overall 2003 points from the current riders, they would be ranked third in the world.
BIOGRAPHY
Tyler Hamilton, born in Marblehead, Mass., is living outside of Boulder during the offseason to train in the mountains. Here are some quick facts on the 32-year-old cyclist:
Teams: Swiss Phonak (December 2003-present); Danish CSC (2001-03); U.S. Postal (1995-2001)
Accomplishments: Won 122.45-mile 16th stage in 2003 Tour de France just 17 days after breaking collarbone; won 2003 Liege-Bastogne- Liege race in Belgium; won 2003 Tour de Romandie in Switzerland; second overall in 2003 Vuelta al Pais Vasco race in Spain; second overall at 2002 Giro D'Italia; won 1999 Tour of Denmark.
Tour de France finishes: fourth in 2003; 15th, 2002; 94th, 2001; 25th, 2000; 13th, 1999, 51st, 1998, 69th, 1997.> Of course, Hamilton's year certainly helped. People forget that even before his crash-and-dash around France, he won the prestigious Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Tour de Romandie. He had made a name in the cycling world but not the sporting world.
He has now. In his daily cruises through the mountains surrounding Boulder, passersby slow down to congratulate him. He attracts packed crowds to cycling promotions. His hometown of Marblehead, Mass., threw him a parade. He threw out the first pitch at a Red Sox game.
He has started a foundation for multiple sclerosis. IMAX is scheduled to release a film in September on the power of the human mind, featuring Hamilton and CSC.
Americans aren't crazy about cycling stories. But they love comeback stories.
"I learned a lot of lessons but the biggest lesson was never to give up," Hamilton said. "I was this close to stopping the race. I didn't want to be just another finisher of the Tour. That wasn't for me. My goal was to be on the podium."
Powering through pain
For one night, the 1,000-plus reporters and quarter-million fans who watched the Tour's first stage thought Hamilton's only goal would be to get out of bed. The crash near the finish was the cycling version of a multicar pileup at Indy.
Hamilton landed on his shoulder and spent the night at the hospital. Broken collarbone. Out. Dreams dashed. New plans. New tears. The next day, remarkably, Hamilton showed up at the start. He finished the stage. He survived hairpin turns that dropped speeds from 45 mph to 10.
Ever applied hand brakes real quick? Notice the pressure on your shoulder? Imagine doing that with a broken collarbone. Imagine that collarbone moving under your flesh.
"The biggest thing was continuing," Hamilton said. "The first few days were just awful. A, I wasn't sleeping well at night because I was in so much pain. Then B, riding those rough roads of France was just nonstop pain. It was pain all along. It wasn't like, OK, you've got a six-hour race so you've got six hours of pain. It was just all day."
As time went on, however, the pain lessened and he became numb to it. His rapidly improving results led many observers to say the collarbone wasn't really broken. There was no other way to explain it - except for the X-ray CSC carried everywhere.
It was a nice little story about courage and perseverance, about pain tolerance and drive. Later, however, Hamilton became a good cycling story. He actually won a stage: the 16th, a deceptively difficult ride to Bayonne on the Atlantic Coast.
It came the day after his second rest day and his legs felt good. So did his collarbone. The stage was half mountains, half flat terrain. Following that came two flat stages, a time trial and Paris.
"So most people were thinking, 'I made it,"' Hamilton said. "Paris was right around the corner and this stage isn't going to be that hard. So I bet 80 percent of the peloton was thinking that. Bjarne gave the whole team a pep talk the night of the rest day. He said, 'Listen, our race isn't over. The mountains aren't over. Tomorrow is going to be a very difficult day.'
"I saw the stage in April. I knew how hard it was. I'd done my homework."
Now he's doing more. On Friday he returned to his training home in Girona, Spain, and will study this year's route a few times. Tour officials replaced one flat stage with a time trial up brutal Alpe d'Huez. That plays to Armstrong's strength.
However, Armstrong faltered some in the Alps and his winning margin closed from 7 minutes, 17 seconds in 2002 to 1:01 last year. He is a year older. He is going through a divorce. Is he vulnerable? Is he vulnerable to Hamilton?
"He's getting older, and he's got a lot going on," Hamilton said of his former U.S. Postal teammate. "It's hard for him. He has a busy lifestyle. He does a lot. But I know the way Lance works, and he'll be ready."
So, apparently, will Hamilton. After all, breaking his collarbone was really nothing. He grew up a Red Sox fan. How much more pain can that be? Now he has his collarbone back and his Red Sox have Curt Schilling.
"My lowest point of the year was Stage 1," Hamilton said with a smile. "My second-lowest point was the Red Sox lost. But (this) year's the year."
John Henderson
Denver Post Sports Writer
Wednesday, January 14, 2004 -
BOULDER - When Tyler Hamilton is sweating up Magnolia Road in Boulder Canyon, it suddenly becomes Alpe d'Huez. When he is speeding along his loop around Boulder, he's on the time trial to Besancon. When he's cycling the final stretch to his home north of the city, Sunshine Canyon Road is the Champs Elysees and his house is the Tour de France podium in Paris.
"Not a day goes by," Hamilton said, "that I don't think about it."
He doesn't think about crashing on Stage 1 of last year's Tour. He doesn't think about winning Stage 16 despite a broken collarbone. He doesn't think about the lives he changed with an effort that almost upstaged Lance Armstrong. Hamilton is thinking about upstaging Armstrong in Paris. On the podium. In cycling's most popular event.
Hamilton thinks he has taken the necessary steps to break Armstrong's quest for a record sixth Tour victory. The biggest step was a controversy that spanned the breadth of Europe's huge cycling community but one that barely registered a blip on the American sporting scene.
On the night after Christmas, the former University of Colorado skier sat down in his beautiful home overlooking Boulder Canyon and discussed his shot at winning this July's Tour, his captivating performance last year and his new fame, however limited, in his home country.
Hamilton, 32, always thought he could win the Tour de France. Last year's fourth place-finish, despite the painful injury, further steeled his resolve. However, in a move that shocked all of cycling, in late summer Hamilton switched teams from Denmark-based CSC, the top team finisher in the Tour, to the underachieving Swiss team, Phonak.
It was the equivalent of Pedro Martinez leaving Hamilton's beloved Boston Red Sox for the Baltimore Orioles. But then again, a cyclist's life is a lot shorter than a major-league pitcher's.
"In a selfish sort of way, I'm 32 years old," said Hamilton, a few hours after a 6-hour, 45-minute ride. "I'm not going to do this until I'm 40. And I don't ever want to look back and say I wish I did everything I could to win the Tour de France. I have to try and win. I have to think that I can win.
"I have to think that my team's going to support me 100 percent."
Team talent vs. solo support
For cycling teams, there are two ways to ride the Tour de France. U.S. Postal Service has eight cyclists who do everything they can to help Armstrong win the Tour. That means the others don't win stages. They don't leave him unprotected on the course. Then there are teams that go for numerous stage wins to build depth in an effort to win the overall team competition.
In that regard, CSC was the best in the world. Unfortunately for Hamilton, he found himself alone during some stages, without a teammate to block the wind while he worked his way to the leaders.
"We had a lot of objectives," said Hamilton, the VeloNews' North American rider of the year. "U.S. Postal had one. You can't say either one is wrong. Both definitely get a lot of publicity for their sponsors. But in a selfish sort of way, I want a team built around me like U.S. Postal is built around Lance.
"And Phonak came to me with that opportunity."
Money was not a major issue, Hamilton said. Though he wouldn't give figures, he and CSC officials say both offers were close. The issue was his role. He discussed it with team manager Bjarne Riis, a former Tour de France winner, before the 2003 Tour. He went back to him after receiving the Phonak offer.
It was a difficult meeting. Hamilton credits Riis for signing him two years ago and getting him to where he is today. Riis told him that he's still their leader but Hamilton wasn't convinced.
"We can't take the risk, either, to wait and hope that it's going to come around," Hamilton said. "Because I know the way Bjarne works. He wants to get as much out of his team so the sponsor's happy so they'll come back and sponsor the team and hopefully put more money into the team."
Riis, contacted Friday at his home in Lucca, Italy, said he believes Hamilton could have won the Tour with CSC but wasn't willing to sacrifice the whole team.
"I understand what he's saying, but he has to be as strong as Lance Armstrong," Riis said. "When he's as strong as Armstrong, that's when he gets that support."
Rallying the troops
It's clear Hamilton has support now. Phonak, which didn't even qualify for last year's Tour, has signed nine new riders, including Spain's highly coveted Oscar Sevilla. Hamilton made recommendations on team riders and approved of each hire.
Phonak still must earn a wild-card spot for the Tour, but Hamilton said if you took the overall 2003 points from the current riders, they would be ranked third in the world.
BIOGRAPHY
Tyler Hamilton, born in Marblehead, Mass., is living outside of Boulder during the offseason to train in the mountains. Here are some quick facts on the 32-year-old cyclist:
Teams: Swiss Phonak (December 2003-present); Danish CSC (2001-03); U.S. Postal (1995-2001)
Accomplishments: Won 122.45-mile 16th stage in 2003 Tour de France just 17 days after breaking collarbone; won 2003 Liege-Bastogne- Liege race in Belgium; won 2003 Tour de Romandie in Switzerland; second overall in 2003 Vuelta al Pais Vasco race in Spain; second overall at 2002 Giro D'Italia; won 1999 Tour of Denmark.
Tour de France finishes: fourth in 2003; 15th, 2002; 94th, 2001; 25th, 2000; 13th, 1999, 51st, 1998, 69th, 1997.> Of course, Hamilton's year certainly helped. People forget that even before his crash-and-dash around France, he won the prestigious Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Tour de Romandie. He had made a name in the cycling world but not the sporting world.
He has now. In his daily cruises through the mountains surrounding Boulder, passersby slow down to congratulate him. He attracts packed crowds to cycling promotions. His hometown of Marblehead, Mass., threw him a parade. He threw out the first pitch at a Red Sox game.
He has started a foundation for multiple sclerosis. IMAX is scheduled to release a film in September on the power of the human mind, featuring Hamilton and CSC.
Americans aren't crazy about cycling stories. But they love comeback stories.
"I learned a lot of lessons but the biggest lesson was never to give up," Hamilton said. "I was this close to stopping the race. I didn't want to be just another finisher of the Tour. That wasn't for me. My goal was to be on the podium."
Powering through pain
For one night, the 1,000-plus reporters and quarter-million fans who watched the Tour's first stage thought Hamilton's only goal would be to get out of bed. The crash near the finish was the cycling version of a multicar pileup at Indy.
Hamilton landed on his shoulder and spent the night at the hospital. Broken collarbone. Out. Dreams dashed. New plans. New tears. The next day, remarkably, Hamilton showed up at the start. He finished the stage. He survived hairpin turns that dropped speeds from 45 mph to 10.
Ever applied hand brakes real quick? Notice the pressure on your shoulder? Imagine doing that with a broken collarbone. Imagine that collarbone moving under your flesh.
"The biggest thing was continuing," Hamilton said. "The first few days were just awful. A, I wasn't sleeping well at night because I was in so much pain. Then B, riding those rough roads of France was just nonstop pain. It was pain all along. It wasn't like, OK, you've got a six-hour race so you've got six hours of pain. It was just all day."
As time went on, however, the pain lessened and he became numb to it. His rapidly improving results led many observers to say the collarbone wasn't really broken. There was no other way to explain it - except for the X-ray CSC carried everywhere.
It was a nice little story about courage and perseverance, about pain tolerance and drive. Later, however, Hamilton became a good cycling story. He actually won a stage: the 16th, a deceptively difficult ride to Bayonne on the Atlantic Coast.
It came the day after his second rest day and his legs felt good. So did his collarbone. The stage was half mountains, half flat terrain. Following that came two flat stages, a time trial and Paris.
"So most people were thinking, 'I made it,"' Hamilton said. "Paris was right around the corner and this stage isn't going to be that hard. So I bet 80 percent of the peloton was thinking that. Bjarne gave the whole team a pep talk the night of the rest day. He said, 'Listen, our race isn't over. The mountains aren't over. Tomorrow is going to be a very difficult day.'
"I saw the stage in April. I knew how hard it was. I'd done my homework."
Now he's doing more. On Friday he returned to his training home in Girona, Spain, and will study this year's route a few times. Tour officials replaced one flat stage with a time trial up brutal Alpe d'Huez. That plays to Armstrong's strength.
However, Armstrong faltered some in the Alps and his winning margin closed from 7 minutes, 17 seconds in 2002 to 1:01 last year. He is a year older. He is going through a divorce. Is he vulnerable? Is he vulnerable to Hamilton?
"He's getting older, and he's got a lot going on," Hamilton said of his former U.S. Postal teammate. "It's hard for him. He has a busy lifestyle. He does a lot. But I know the way Lance works, and he'll be ready."
So, apparently, will Hamilton. After all, breaking his collarbone was really nothing. He grew up a Red Sox fan. How much more pain can that be? Now he has his collarbone back and his Red Sox have Curt Schilling.
"My lowest point of the year was Stage 1," Hamilton said with a smile. "My second-lowest point was the Red Sox lost. But (this) year's the year."