Team Giant-Alpecin riders in crash

[T-Bob]

Chad Haga @ChadHaga

There's got to be an easier way to gain Twitter followers. I should look into that.

[T-Bob]

Chad Haga @ChadHaga

I guess I should update my whereabouts, but I doubt"the room with blue walls" will help them much,& I don't know their policy on catheters.

[T-Bob]

Chad Haga @ChadHaga

I'm not trying to assign blame...I'm just saying this has never happened at a hotel that let me play the piano.

[Bonus]

Top man! I will watch him this year with interest.

[gummibear]

Degenkolb fractured the radius in his left arm as well as sustaining a serious injury to his index finger in Saturday’s incident, but he underwent successful surgery on Sunday morning in Manises, near Valencia on Sunday morning.

Speaking to Spanish news agency EFE, surgeon Pedro Cavadas said that it would take “about three months” before Degenkolb is fit to return to racing, meaning that the 2015 Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix winner will miss this year’s Classics campaign altogether.

Cavadas made international headlines in 2011 when he performed the first ever double leg transplant. He previously led the team that carried out the first ever double hand transplant in 2006.

Degenkolb spent three hours in surgery on Sunday morning, where Cavadas reattached his severed left index finger, which had risked amputation.

“In theory he could return to racing in the space of three months,” Cavadas told EFE. “Because his normal life is competing at the highest level, the recovery time will be a bit longer than for other patients.”

Degenkolb is reportedly still in hospital in Manises, but is due to return home to Germany in the coming days to continue his rehabilitation.

Degenkolb’s teammate Chad Haga also remains in hospital. The American suffered deep wounds to his chest, neck, chin and face, and is due to undergo surgery on a fractured orbital bone in his face later in the week.

On Monday, Spanish police announced that a 73-year-old English woman had been charged with reckless driving following her collision with the Giant-Alpecin training group at Benigembla, near Alicante on Saturday.

Six Giant-Alpecin riders were injured in the incident: Degenkolb, Haga, Warren Barguil, Ramon Sinkeldam, Max Walscheid and Fredrik Ludvigsson.

['Dale]

Johnny D not defending his Roubaix and 'Remo titles

['Dale]

John Degenkolb returns to racing Sunday for the 56th edition of the Eschborn-Frankfurt race, marking the last of the Giant — Alpecin riders to return to competition following a horrific training accident in January.

 

Read more at http://velonews.competitor.com/2016/04/news/degenkolb-last-of-giant-riders-to-return-from-crash_404094#yL4Pb3hAJRrtMRHj.99

[Bonus]

Good to hear.

[gummibear]

Degenkolb down a finger but eyeing France

 

 

SANTA ROSA, California (VN) — A cylinder of stiff plastic forces John Degenkolb’s left index finger into a straight line, pointing forward. It doesn’t hurt much, but that finger can’t shift or brake, so his middle finger now does both. In the split-second world of sprinting, it’s enough to put him on the back foot, fighting for a top ten rather than victory.

“It’s about getting used to it and building an automation to use [my middle finger],” he said after Saturday’s penultimate stage of the Amgen Tour of California, where he finished eighth. “That’s important, because in a sprint I don’t have time to think about how I brake, you have to react in a flash and follow the instinct.”

The Tour of California is the German’s second race since the crash in January, which was caused by a British driver on the wrong side of the road and sent five Giant-Alpecin riders to the hospital. It’s the first race Degenkolb looks set to finish, and comes after the longest break of his career. He is both rebuilding his form and resetting muscle memory gained over more than a decade of bike racing. It’s a slow process, he said. But he’s moving forward.

“It’s the first longer break I had in my whole career yet, so it’s all a bit new for me,” he said. Beyond mere fitness — he says he’s already back at a “good level” — it’s the less tangible aspects of bike racing that are slow to return.

Degenkolb used to revel in the battle for position that comes in the final kilometers, but now finds it more difficult. “When you see how I fought for the position in San Remo, that this is exactly what I’m good at, normally,” he said. “So this is what I just have to work on to get back on the same level. I don’t have the assertiveness yet, that I normally have to race for the victory in a final like this. But I think it was the next exclamation mark on my way back to have a top ten finish here.

“I’m not much missing, but it’s that one percent that decides if you can sprint for the victory. But my legs were not bad today and I think I’ve shown here that I am back on a good level and that my shape is going up.”

There’s no question that the Degenkolb in California is not the same man who won Milano-Sanremo or Paris-Roubaix. He hasn’t reached the end of his road to full recovery, but California is a key paving stone. He needed a week of hard racing, and that’s what he found. The top 10 on Saturday, at the end of a physically demanding stage in Santa Rosa, was proof that he’s close to his old self.

“I think I was the only one today who was really happy that it was such a hard race, because that’s what I really need, that’s what I did not have for more than half a year and that’s something you can not simulate in training,” he said. “So that was exactly right for me, exactly what I hoped to get this week.”

The next objective is the Tour de France, and another French stage win. He will ride either the Criterium du Dauphine or Tour de Suisse in preparation, but hasn’t decided which yet. “The main thing is to do one,” he said. “It’s just important to have a good [training] load, and to do a training block before.”

The goal, as always, is the Tour. “Even if it sounds a bit high because I don’t have results this season, but the goal for me obviously is a stage win,” he said. “For sure, that’s like every other year.”

Read more at http://velonews.competitor.com/2016/05/news/degenkolb-finger-eyeing-france_406861#Uqg3HGTj5u7lhszT.99

[Gen]

Degenkolb down a finger but eyeing France

 

 

SANTA ROSA, California (VN) — A cylinder of stiff plastic forces John Degenkolb’s left index finger into a straight line, pointing forward. It doesn’t hurt much, but that finger can’t shift or brake, so his middle finger now does both. In the split-second world of sprinting, it’s enough to put him on the back foot, fighting for a top ten rather than victory.

“It’s about getting used to it and building an automation to use [my middle finger],” he said after Saturday’s penultimate stage of the Amgen Tour of California, where he finished eighth. “That’s important, because in a sprint I don’t have time to think about how I brake, you have to react in a flash and follow the instinct.”

The Tour of California is the German’s second race since the crash in January, which was caused by a British driver on the wrong side of the road and sent five Giant-Alpecin riders to the hospital. It’s the first race Degenkolb looks set to finish, and comes after the longest break of his career. He is both rebuilding his form and resetting muscle memory gained over more than a decade of bike racing. It’s a slow process, he said. But he’s moving forward.

“It’s the first longer break I had in my whole career yet, so it’s all a bit new for me,” he said. Beyond mere fitness — he says he’s already back at a “good level” — it’s the less tangible aspects of bike racing that are slow to return.

Degenkolb used to revel in the battle for position that comes in the final kilometers, but now finds it more difficult. “When you see how I fought for the position in San Remo, that this is exactly what I’m good at, normally,” he said. “So this is what I just have to work on to get back on the same level. I don’t have the assertiveness yet, that I normally have to race for the victory in a final like this. But I think it was the next exclamation mark on my way back to have a top ten finish here.

“I’m not much missing, but it’s that one percent that decides if you can sprint for the victory. But my legs were not bad today and I think I’ve shown here that I am back on a good level and that my shape is going up.”

There’s no question that the Degenkolb in California is not the same man who won Milano-Sanremo or Paris-Roubaix. He hasn’t reached the end of his road to full recovery, but California is a key paving stone. He needed a week of hard racing, and that’s what he found. The top 10 on Saturday, at the end of a physically demanding stage in Santa Rosa, was proof that he’s close to his old self.

“I think I was the only one today who was really happy that it was such a hard race, because that’s what I really need, that’s what I did not have for more than half a year and that’s something you can not simulate in training,” he said. “So that was exactly right for me, exactly what I hoped to get this week.”

The next objective is the Tour de France, and another French stage win. He will ride either the Criterium du Dauphine or Tour de Suisse in preparation, but hasn’t decided which yet. “The main thing is to do one,” he said. “It’s just important to have a good [training] load, and to do a training block before.”

The goal, as always, is the Tour. “Even if it sounds a bit high because I don’t have results this season, but the goal for me obviously is a stage win,” he said. “For sure, that’s like every other year.”

Read more at http://velonews.competitor.com/2016/05/news/degenkolb-finger-eyeing-france_406861#Uqg3HGTj5u7lhszT.99

That must be such an adjustment hey.

[Cav']

Heard he might be joining Trek next season..

I think it would be a good move, the team has a lot of resources.