Injured Reserves: Julian Dean update
Gent-Wevelgem was a mixed back for Team Garmin-Slipstream, with Julian Dean injured in a bad crash. But thanks to the team’s crack medical staff his injury ended up looking worse than it actually was. Dr. Prentice Steffen escorted Dean all the way into surgery — and even got to scrub-in as first assistant! Julian reports [...]
Injured Reserves: Caldwell, Friedman & Tuft
Team Garmin-Slipstream went almost a whole week without a crash or injury — but as it is often said, things happen in threes. On Thursday three of the Argyle Armada ended up on the deck with three disparate results. The worst of the three was Blake Caldwell who crashed while going out for a training [...]
Injured Reserves update
In response to David Millar’s injury update, many of you have inquired about the status of the rest of the injured Argyle Armada, including the status of Tyler Farrar following his crash Saturday at Milan-San Remo. Below is the injury update from the team’s doctor, Prentice Steffen: Tyler Farrar injured his shoulder, but he had [...]
'The Millar Diaries' meets 'Injured Reserves'
Team Garmin-Slipstream injury update While the Argyle Armada had two successful races last week, including wins by Tyler Farrar and Christian Vande Velde, the other results were some riders hitting the deck. The Paris-Nice squad only finished with three riders total — such is bike racing. The most serious injury was to David Millar, who [...]
Injured Reserves Report: Jason's Hip
Medical update on Jason Donald after his crash in the final kilometers of the final stage of the Vuelta a Chihuahua: “I talked with Jason who is on a layover at DFW from Chihuhua City to Denver. It sounds like a “hip fracture” that will be painful and annoying, but ultimately not a big deal. [...]
Injured Reserves Report: Danny's mountain bike crash
The risk of crashing on a bike is to a considerable extent decided simply by how much time a person spends out on the bike. While race time is obviously the time we see and think about most with our guys, in fact they spend a lot more time on the bike outside of racing. [...]
Injured Reserves Report: Christophe's broken ribs
Christophe Laurent was involved in a routine crash a few days ago in the final stage of the the Tour of Denmark. He sustained an injury to his chest in the crash. As is often the case, it didn’t seem like a serious problem at the time, so no detailed medical evaluation was undertaken. However [...]
Injured Reserves Report: Patched up and ready
Yes, six of eight went down yesterday in a massive pile-up in a round-about outside Cuneo, 50 km before the finish (Julian Dean pictured left post crash). Six of seven really since Danny was off the front. None of the guys were hurt badly. Mostly abrasions and not particularly bad ones at that. Fast moving [...]
Injured Reserves Report: So far, so good
Twelve stages down with nine to go and it feels like an update on the health of the riders is in order. In fact I submitted an update 4-5 stages ago and it was so inconsequential that our website editor rejected it! I couldn’t argue though, because except for Magnus and his difficulty, the guys [...]
Injured Reserves Report: Good start, knock wood
I arrived two days before the start to find that management had selected nine riders who showed up for the season’s premiere race (yes, the Tour) with only one minor issue among them. Martijn Maskaant had a “tickle” in his throat and that was it. 48 hours and several doses of Emergen-C later, even that [...]
Injured Reserves Report: Za Dave heading home
For me there’s a particular point in our medical team’s management of a serious injury situation when I feel the most relief. That’s when the involved rider gets on a plane and heads home. Early this morning our Team Physiologist Allen Lim took Dave Z to a small nearby airport and got him headed to [...]
Injured Reserves: Tour of Flanders
24 hours have passed now since the Tour of Flanders and I’m really happy (and significantly relieved) that no one was seriously hurt. Mike Friedman crashed at a really bad time, banging himself up a bit. Though he wrecked his chances of a good showing more than his rugged Meatball body. Despite the epic weather [...]
Injured Reserves Report: Cozza's Clavicle
Damn, I hate calls like this. Johnny Weltz called to let me know that Steven went down in stage 3 of De Panne and landed badly on his shoulder breaking his clavicle (“collar bone”). The x-ray showed a crack near the end of the clavicle where it joins the scapula (“shoulder blade”). For a refresher [...]
Injured Reserves Report: CJ's Bee Movie
So I’m just getting going on a night shift in Emergency at Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa, CA (my day job as it were). My cell rings and the caller ID shows a country code 34 number: Spain. Probably Girona and something from a rider. In fact it’s assistant DS Matt White [...]
Injured Reserves Report: Mending Maggy
We can now officially remove Maggy (Magnus Backstedt) from our Injured Reserves list. Tuesday, he completed the difficult 7-day Italian stage race Tirreno-Adriatico. He finished (how shall I say it?) well back. But given his Tour of Qatar crash in January, and the surgical repair of his fractured right clavicle in London the next day, [...]
Injured Reserves Report: Paris-Nice
Team Physician, Prentice Steffen, MD writes from Paris-Nice with Team’s Slipstream/Chipotle’s first “Injured Reserves” report: I can only speak with authority about Slipstreams/Chipotle medical situations, but I can say with certainty that we’ve not had medical luck on our side recently. I arrived in France last week wondering if our good fortune would continue to [...]
Med Squad: Steffen leads California medical crew
In his third year working the Tour of California, Slipstream’s physician Prentice Steffen is packed and ready to attend to the team’s needs. “I travel with a reasonably extensive medial kit to handle everything a rider might need short of having to go to the emergency room,” says Steffen. “In the US and for California, [...]
