American Tyler Hamilton’s retirement from the Tour de France will not change the way his Swiss Phonak team regard their leader, according to team manager Jacques Michaud.
Hamilton came into the tour with yellow-jersey ambitions after his fourth-place finish and stage win last year despite riding the entire race with a fractured collarbone picked up from a crash on the first stage.
This year the 33-year-old American, a former teammate of Lance Armstrong at US Postal, was again unlucky, sustaining a back injury from a crash that led to his retirement from the race early in Saturday’s tough 13th stage.
Phonak has built their team around Hamilton, and Michaud said the team still have confidence in him despite the appearance that he had pulled out of the race with less serious injuries than he had last year.
”There’s a difference in the consequences of the two crashes he had last year and this year,” said Michaud.
”Last year he managed to finish the race despite his collarbone injury because he is a rider who, because of his way of pedalling, doesn’t need to rely on it so much, unlike some riders who get up out of their saddle to pedal.
”Tyler relies more on his pelvis, his kidneys and his lower back when he pedals. He uses his lower back a lot more than most other riders, and that’s exactly where he was injured this year.
”His crash at Angers was a big blow,” added Michaud, who said he has no regrets at building the team entirely around the American.
”We’ve no regrets. We don’t have several riders who can contend the general classification. It was a choice which merited being made, Tyler was in good shape. But when you crash, there’s not much you can do about it.
”A crash can more or less end your race,” added Michaud. ”Tyler remains a solid leader of our team, he proved that this year. He won the Tour de Romandie [in Switzerland], he was second in the Dauphine Libere, and he’s brought a lot to the team.
”He has our complete confidence. His status as team leader is not under question.” — Sapa-AFP