First Edition Cycling News for December 26, 2005

Edited by John Stevenson & Jeff Jones

The road to recovery

The survivors of the July 18 AIS women's team tragedy are determined to make it back to the top

Coping well: The AIS girls
Photo ©: Gerard Knapp

The road to recovery is measured in degrees and millimetres, each one painfully gained as shattered limbs gradually regain movement. Gerard Knapp reports from the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in Canberra, where the five riders who survived the shocking tragedy in Germany this July were back in the lab, showing an amazing rate of improvement and still very much an important part of the women's road racing program.

Katie Brown moved her left leg - initially thought to be so badly damaged, it would need to be amputated - on to the pedal of her new bike, and the rider gingerly, painfully, began another important cycle of rehabilitation.

It was less than five months earlier that Brown had ended up in a ditch on the side of a relatively quiet German road, after being slammed within an inch of her life by an out of control car. That same leg, as she put it, had been shattered to the point where "my ankle ended up around my armpit."

But a few days prior to her session in the AIS biomechanics lab in Canberra, surgeons in Sydney performed yet another operation. This time, it was removal of a section of synthetic cord, wrapped in a figure-eight pattern around her kneecap that had held her leg together. Its removal led to another a breakthrough for the rider; she went into triple figures - 101 degrees, to be exact - of knee bend.

Earlier, her knee flex hovered in the low 90s, but all the determination was there in the AIS biomechanics lab to go further, whatever the pain. The effort belied her appearance. Katie Brown is a blonde, bubbly extrovert. Her t-shirt she wore on the day in the lab read: "I had a nightmare I was a brunette."

Click here for the full interview.

Hincapie looks back on 2005's greatest moment

George Hincapie (Discovery Channel)
Photo ©: Jon Devich

South Carolina newspaper The State has named Discovery Channel rider George Hincapie as its 2005 Professional Athlete of the Year, and in an interview with the paper, Hincapie has looked back on his greatest moment of 2005: winning stage 15 of the Tour de France.

"I've been racing professionally 12 years, won big races, races no Americans ever won," Hincapie said, referring to victories such as his 2001 Gent-Wevelgem win. "But winning a stage of the Tour was 10 times bigger than anything I've ever done, 10 times more attention. It shows how popular the Tour de France is, how many people are watching."

Hincapie said he was feeling unusually strong, "super good" when he got in a breakaway on the road to Saint-Lary Soulan in what was considered the 2005 Tour's queen stage. His role in the 2005 Tour, as it had been for the previous six, was to support Lance Armstrong, after spending the months between the Spring classics and July transforming himself from a Classics endurance and sprint finish specialist to a mountains super-domestique. But with Armstrong comfortably clear of any of the breakaway riders, Hincapie was given the chance to shine.

"It was nerve-wracking," he said. "At that point, there were 15 guys left in the breakaway, several guys who on paper are normally stronger than me on climbing. A lot went through my head: I didn't want to mess up the chance."

Just over two kilometres from the finish, Hincapie said he realised his sprint would give him a decisive advantage. "Wow. I think I may win this thing," he thought.

That win immediately led to speculation that Hincapie might step into Armstrong's shoes as Discovery Channel's contender for the Tour, and it looks like Hincapie might get a crack at the general classification in 2006. "The team is talking about supporting me on the Tour," he said. "It was a hard seat to fill [and] they all want to see what Lance has done. But I think I can do a lot better [than Hincapie has in the past], not having to work as much as I did [for Armstrong]."

"How far I can go, I don't know. I haven't been in that position," Hincapie added. "But it's an exciting thing."

Ullrich back from the sun

By Susan Westemeyer

Froh Weihnachten! Jan Ullrich has returned to Switzerland after nearly four weeks in South Africa. "He trained well with Andreas Klöden, Matthias Kessler, Steffen Wesemann, Olaf Pollack, Patrik Sinkewitz, Andre Korff and Danilo Hondo - maybe even better than last year," T-Mobile's Rudy Pevenage told the German press agency dpa.

The next training camp will be the team's official training camp on Mallorca, starting January 10. On his website, www.janullrich.de, Ullrich says, "The last four weeks were very satisfactory," and not only from a sporting point of view. "In this time I got to know many new people and gained new experiences. The difference between the rich and poor is especially large in South Africa. The many millions of people in the townships struggle every day to have the simplest things in life. I especially think about that when I wrap the Christmas presents for my loved ones. I think that each of us should do his part to battle against the misery in the world."

Cancellara dreams of the Classics

CSC's young Swiss new recruit, Fabian Cancellara says his ambition is to win the sport's biggest one-day races, Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders. In an interview on the team's website, the 24-year-old former Fassa Bortolo rider talks about his ambitions for 2006 and the coming years.

Despite his youth, Cancellara has 31 victories on his palmares, including stages of Paris-Nice, Setmana-Catalana, Tour of Belgium and Tour of Qatar, and has worn the yellow jersey of Tour de France leader after winning the prologue in 2004. Paris-Roubaix and Tour of Flanders are his immediate ambitions, he says. "I'm very keen on the classic one-day races and especially those two. But if I'm allowed to dream a little, I would have to mention the Tour de France. Standing at the top of the podium in Paris would be a dream come through, even though the big classics suit me best."

Wearing the Tour yellow jersey in 2004 was "a huge experience" he says, in a year when he "really developed as a professional rider."

Cancellara's first goal for 2006 is to ft in with his new team. "It's important for me to gain the trust of my team mates. It's fundamental in order for me to be able to perform well," he says.

After that Cancellara plans a long season. "My first big goal will be the spring classics and then the Tour de France," he says. "I hope to do well in the prologue, but also work hard so Team CSC and Ivan Basso can achieve a top result in the overall standings. In the last part of the season, I consider the individual time trial World Championship to be one of my main objectives."

A senior time trial world championship would sit very nicely in the trophy cabinet next to his 1998 and 1999 junior titles. It's been quite a run for the youngster who at age 13 was loaned one of his dad's old bikes. "I must say I was instantly hooked," he says of his first experiences with cycling. "It was exciting to ride around and experience new places, and cycling quickly replaced football, which up until then was my favourite sport. I joined the local club and things slowly started to progress from there on."

Armstrong seeking rest

The months following his retirement as a professional cyclist at the end of July have been anything but restful for Lance Armstrong. In the second part of his interview with De Telegraaf, the Texan explained that he is still craving more time with his family and partner Sheryl Crow.

"This is not a life," said Armstrong. "On the Champs Elysées, I promised those closest to me that the coming months would be calm. Alas, nothing came of that. From Paris I went with Sheryl and the kids for a week to the Côte d'Azur, where we spent a lot of time with U2 singer Bono. Then we spent a couple of days relaxed in New York. From that time on, I haven't known a moment's rest."

In the meantime, Armstrong has been busy giving talks for his cancer foundation, doing TV spots, discussing a movie project, spending time with the Discovery Channel team, and more. "I'm a lot busier now than when I was a cyclist," Armstrong continued. "Actually the life of a rider is relatively simple. When you are training hard in the lead up to a race, everyone knows that you need rest. Since I retired, everyone has assumed that I have spare time. It's not a fair game."

Armstrong admitted that he is "bad at saying no," but realises he'll have to change his 'go-go' philosophy if he is to find the space he seeks. "No-one will say on their deathbed, 'If only I'd worked a bit more'. Everyone says 'If only I'd had taken more holidays, paid more attention to my kids, and made just a bit more time for my hobbies.' Yes, I'm annoyed that I think too little of myself. I still haven't found any rest."

Rest also means that he has not had any time to do much sport, and his post-career ambitions of doing other sports have been very much put on hold. "Since the Tour I've done barely a thousand kilometres on the bike. I don't dare to step on the scales any more. I love sport, but I realise that I can't do competitive sport any more. Earlier I dreamed of the Iron Man or Race Across America. But when I realise how many hours of training that involves, I can't think of it any more."

Armstrong said that his seven Tour victories gave his cancer support work a lot more impact in America than if he hadn't won any. "I'm happy that I now mean so much to the community."

As far as his cycling career goes, Armstrong described himself as a "...satisfied man. I got the last laugh. I've closed the chapter on cycling for a long time already. I did my job, worked harder than the rest, was smarter and had a better team. Now it's over. I'm only obliged to look back because of the bullshit stories in L'Equipe. And I realise that I can be proud. It was a fantastic time. Much better than I ever dreamed. I was professional for 14 years and my career had two distance parts. Part A, before cancer, was already better than I ever thought. I was World Champion, won classics and stages in the Tour. And after my sickness, the seven Tour victories followed. Amazing. With these wins I created a platform that I can use until I die."

Armstrong is still in regular contact with his former mentor and manager of the Discovery Team Johan Bruyneel, and he keeps up to date with the news. As for his future, besides being a good father to his kids, he isn't sure. The Governor of Texas option is probably out of the question, at least for the foreseeable future. "Hmm, you can never say never. I don't know if it's beyond me. If you choose for a party in politics, you know that the rest will shoot at you. You have to endure a lot of criticism. The bullshit from L'Equipe is just a diet cola compared to a stiff vodka that I would get by choosing a political career. People will be against you for the political decisions that you have to make. In my fight against cancer, I want to be there for everyone. So, my ambitions probably lie elsewhere. But I might think about differently in 10 years."

Newton to give coaching talk

By Shane Stokes

Double FBD Insurance Rás winner Chris Newton will be one of the speakers at the Irish National cycling coaching forum, which will be held on Saturday, January 14 in Kilcullen community school.

Those present will get an invaluable insight into what it takes to be both a Rás champion and a top track rider. Newton is both an Olympic medallist and double track world champion, and will be sharing some of the tips of the trade with those at the forum. There will also be talks by other speakers, including a presentation on using heart monitors and power measurement systems in training.

All are welcome to the forum, which begins with a training spin at 10 am on the 14th. The talks will begin after lunch. More details will follow closer to the event. Alternatively, contact Will Byrne at 0035386 8047839.

Cyclingnews Reader Poll results: Track Cyclists of the Year

Who are your favourites among the specialists in cycling's purest disciplines, the track riders? In the latest instalment of our 2005 Reader Poll we announce the top male track rider and female track rider of 2005.

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