Stomach problems knock Danielson out

Tom Danielson of Team Discovery Channel dropped out of the first stage of the Dauphiné Libéré, after 199 kilometres. According to the team's website, thepaceline.com, "stomach problems" stopped the 29 year-old American rider. It is unknown if missing his last big lead-up race before the Tour de France could affect his chances in making the team's nine-man selection for the July race. Neither he nor the team could be reached for comment.

It would not be his first stomach ailment of the year. He came down with a stomach bug just before the Volta a Catalunya, which knocked him out for three days. "That was it, no Volta for me," he wrote on www.tomdanielson.com. "If anyone of you has ever had a stomach virus, you know how hard it knocks you out. For those of you who've been spared, count yourself lucky; the bad ones can reduce you to a baby's crawl. It's not exactly the best scenario for a pro cyclist in the middle of the season."

He recovered in time to ride the Tour of Belgium. "I pretty much lost any chance of placing well here after the first kilometre of the first day of this five-day stage race" because of the wind, he noted. Things got better though, and he finished third in the time-trial.

"It's a tired cliché, but the best way to train for racing is to race," Danielson noted. "My finish in the time trial was incredibly satisfying. It shows that all the work I've been doing this year on that discipline is starting to pay off. I know my climbing's dialled, but making progress as a time-trialist was my goal for this spring as I worked on making myself a more complete rider."

After that race, he returned to his home in Spain before doing some training in the Pyrenees and then heading to his short appearance in the Dauphiné.