Duggan likely out for rest of season

Timmy Duggan of Team Slipstream has faced the realisation that his season may have been ended by his crash in the third stage of the Tour de Georgia, although he is still hoping to be able to ride in the fall. While his broken collarbone and shoulder blade are healing satisfactorily, his head injury is still a cause of concern.

He recently underwent a series of tests at Craig Hospital in Denver, Colorado, USA, and did well in the physical and cognitive tests, he wrote on his website, justgoharder.com. "The catch was my MRI scan of my brain didn't look excellent. The subdural hematoma on my brain is still a good enough size to warrant a lot of extra caution for a while. It could be really bad if I were to hit my head again too soon, because my body currently doesn't have the ability to absorb any extra blood from a new injury, or even anything that increases my blood pressure and therefore increases the bleeding in my brain. Extra bleeding here causes the brain to swell, and that is really not good."

And what does that mean for his riding? "So here is the bummer part. As of now, I'm pretty much out for the season. It is too much of a risk to hit my head again if I were to race and train normally in the next two or three months. So I'm hanging onto some hope that everything will heal perfectly and quickly and maybe I can race some in September and October, but only if I am at 100 percent."

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Since he is not allowed to take a chance of hitting his head on anything and must keep his pulse under 120, he noted, "That rules out everything I normally do, except stretching and walking my dog. Hopefully, this department will gradually improve and I will be able to train better and better every week."

The 25 year-old concluded that, once he does return to racing, "I will be hungrier and stronger and faster than I ever was before. Don't be surprised!"(SW)