The Tour de France peloton today entered the first real mountains in this year’s Tour de France.
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| Hamilton: "I'm starting to get used to the pain." But will tomorow's tough climbs prove to be too much for him? Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com to find out. Photo copyright Fotoreporter Sirotti. |
Tyler Hamilton (Team CSC) appeared to be experiencing no problems in today’s stage 7, and managed to complete the Alp stage in the same time as the other favorites.
Hamilton’s team mates Carlos Sastre and Peter Luttenberger were able to follow captain courageous - even on the tough climbs.
Hamilton was very pleased with his own performance and the fact that he did not have any problems keeping up with the favorites in spite of riding with a fractured collarbone: “I am very pleased with the way the stage developed. There was a constant pace in the group of favorites and that really suits me in my current condition. It still hurts, when I have to stand up in the pedals in order to accelerate. However, as strangely as this may sound, I am actually starting to get used to the pain. I have maintained all along that I only want to stay in the race, if I can play a role and that was exactly what I and the team - was able to do on today’s stage. Tomorrow will be much tougher and that will be a very important test for us all,” Hamilton told Roadcycling.com.
CSC team manager and former Tour winner Bjarne Riis was satisfied with the performances of his riders today. Riis told Roadcycling.com that “With three riders among the favorites, we have reason to be satisfied. The favorites did not go flat out but there were still some notable riders among the people who were dropped. However, our riders held on when the going got tough. I believe that we will see a completely different race tomorrow and we can only hope that Tyler can swallow the pain once again. Carlos Sastre and Peter Luttenberger both looked strong today and I think that the team delivered a good performance”.
Hamilton moved up in the overall classification and is now placed 20th – 04:21 down on race leader Richard Virenque.
Be sure to keep sending us your comments for Tyler. We’ll pass them on to him as soon as we receive them. Email us at info@roadcycling.com
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