Hansen "disappointed" with ProTour debut

By Susan Westemeyer

Adam Hansen is disappointed with his debut in the ProTour. The Australian dropped out of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco during the third stage, and said that "my first ProTour race isn't a good memory." Part of the reason for his withdrawal, the T-Mobile rider told Cyclingnews, is a sore foot. He crashed during a training camp recently and stretched a ligament. Then in a crash during the first stage in Spain, "I landed on it and it's swollen again, but a few days off will help it."

There's more, though. Between crashing and flat tires before the climbs even started, there "was all a combination of things that went against me." Hansen is honest about what went wrong. "But in the end, I didn't prepared well enough, and I was just struggling. I felt it would be better to drop out than to push to the end and still be tired for future races. So by pulling the pin I can relax, get back to normal and try and do something special in my future races. I hate not finishing races, so it wasn't an easy thing to do."