Tyler Tunes: Life at Camp Collar Bone

By Tyler Hamilton, CSC professional cycling team

We’ve made it six stages… which is just about five more than I thought I would see last Sunday. We’re still taking things day-by-day here at Camp Collar Bone. I had a second set of x-rays taken last night. The good news was there was no further displacement, or injury. The bad news was there was no evidence of any healing. We’ve chosen to focus on the good news, so I started today’s stage from Nevers with the same mindset I’ve had all week, which has basically been – lets see what we can do.

I’m completely amazed with all the attention my situation is getting. I’ve been riding my bike for a lot of years and have endured more ups and downs than I can count along the way. But no success or set back of mine has ever been so closely followed.

Riding for Carlos
I am truly blown away by all the support people have sent my way. I know many of you are wondering why I’ve continued on in my condition. I don’t really have a simple explanation for staying on, except to say that cycling is a team sport, and the Tour de France is our Super Bowl. Just about the worst thing imaginable to any rider here is to have to face going home, and leaving their team behind to finish a job they should have been part of.

But I’m also realistic. I’ve finished six Tours in my career so far, so I don’t feel like I have to prove that I can make it to Paris. I guess my primary reason for being here up until now has been to see if I can hang on and lend support to my good friend Carlos Sastre.

He has done so much for me over the last year-and-a-half that I feel like I should make the most of every opportunity to repay him. I wanted to be a contributing factor in the team time trial for him, and tomorrow we will see if I still have what it takes to do some work for him in the mountains.

I’m a little concerned about whether or not I will be able to stand up on the bike. I’m only riding with about 50 percent of my full strength on my right side. So, it hasn’t been that easy to keep pace with the accelerations in the peloton over the last few days. To stay with the first group, you really have to be able to pull on the handle bars when the speeds heat up on the climbs.

If I can’t stay with the lead guys, I won’t be able to be of any service to my trusty amigo. And if I can’t do that, then I will be forced to reevaluate my status in this race. Like I said, I’m not sticking around to be pack fill. I really want to help my team. But if I can’t, then it will be decision time.

Ole works his magic
Ole has been hard at work on my collar bone, neck and back all week. To compliment his efforts, Bjarne invited a doctor from Denmark who specializes in atmospheric ionic therapy to come see me tonight. He gave me about an hours worth of treatment that is meant to help promote healing to my fractures. I don’t know much about the treatment, but at this point, I’m keeping an open mind.

Getting off the subject of myself, the crowds at this year’s Tour have been really amazing. There have been quite a few American flags on hand. It’s great to see that cycling is still a growing and popular sport. Although, I have to say some of the fans have been a litte crazy this year. A couple of days ago someone threw a pack of fire crackers into the peloton, and recently a couple of guys actually got spit on. I don’t think any harm was meant by this stuff. Instead, I figure there are just a few folks letting it rip on their holidays.

Behind the Scenes
My wife and dog arrived at the race Monday night thinking they were coming to take me home after my accident. But their mission has changed a bit. Now they are following the Tour, which is no small feat for a 90 pound golden retriever. For luck, I’ve been packing one of Tugboat’s favorite tennis balls in my race bag every morning, which is in addition to carrying a small vial of salt in my jersey pocket sent to me from a good vibe guru who’s a friend of one of our team’s mechanics.

And now you know why I’ve made it this far.

Thanks for reading.