Ten Dam ends his season early
Laurens Ten Dam has had an unlucky season. The Dutch climber crashed three times, breaking something in each crash at just the wrong time.
"This was a complete lost season,” said Ten Dam, “And I want to get it behind me as quickly as possible."
With barely four weeks separating each crash, the Team Rabobank rider missed out on all of his major targets of the season. He first broke his hip at the Ruta del Sol, which left him out of competition for most of the first half of the season. He was able
to recover well enough to be chosen for Rabobank nine-rider Tour de France squad, but during his build-up to the biggest cycling tour in the world, he crashed at the Tour de Suisse, breaking two vertebrae, a wrist and his chin, putting him back in the hospital
bed for another lengthy recovery process.
"I crashed hard three times this year, and three times I broke something. Crashes happen to everybody. I managed to make it all the way until this year before I broke a bone as a professional. This season though, I barely made it four weeks in succession
without breaking something. You can become very despondent in situations like that, and I had to fight to ensure that did not happen."
Finally, he was aiming for the Vuelta a Espana, the only cycling tour which rivals the Tour de France on a world-wide scale. Once again, Rabobank invited him to the event and he entered in good shape. Not the best shape, but the good-spirited Dutchman was
just happy to be there. Then, in the 15th stage, he crashed a third time. He managed to finish the stage in 37th place despite his broken wrist, but he abandoned the event after the finish line and announced today that he had decided
his season was over.
"It is terribly frustrating, but we should not make too big of a drama out of it. I do not want to linger in that atmosphere. I want to look forward. My head will be empty, and I will let everything settle. I will go through this process, and gradually begin
to look toward next season. 2010 will quickly be forgotten, and I will not look back. What else can I say? It was not meant to be.”
Tags: