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By Anthony Tan
Photo: Graham Watson
Believe it or not, there are two other Americans racing the Tour Down Under — George Hincapie and Timothy Duggan — though you’d be hard-pressed to know who they are, given the commotion surrounding a certain Lance Armstrong. VeloNews caught up with the diminutive Duggan from Garmin-Slipstream before the start of the queen stage of the TDU, and discovered the 26-year-old Coloradan’s been waging something of a comeback himself.
VeloNews: This race, for most, is their first test back into the rhythm of racing — is that the case for you?
Tim Duggan: It’s especially true for me. I’m coming back from a severe brain injury I had in a crash at the Tour of Georgia in April, so it’s my first test in about 10 months.
VN: What happened in the crash that lead to the such a horrific injury?
TD:At the Tour of Georgia (last year), someone crashed in front of me through a crack on a bridge and took me out. It was the third stage, I believe … I ended up with a broken collarbone and a broken scapula, but the main thing was a haemorrhage in my brain; I still have some scarring in my brain.
VN: You must have gone through loads of rehab…
TD: Right — it’s been rehabbing and only training intensely the last couple of months, so yeah, (the Tour Down Under is) a big test for me and everything’s going really well. One thing I was worried about was my recovery, day-to-day within the race; I only started training a couple of months ago, and that was one obstacle I was having to overcome.
After a couple of hard days’ racing, it would just take me way longer than normal to recover. I’m doing this race here, and I’m recovering really well every day, and even getting stronger every day, so that’s a really good sign for me.
VN: Do you still have some issues with memory loss?
TD: Yeah, I have some issues with that; the main thing I was having trouble with was emotional ups and downs. I’d get really depressed for a few days in a row … it was a real roller coaster recovery. As time progressed, that roller coaster kind of flattened out, and I’m starting to feel more normal. But right now, there’s still really little tiny things, just in the way I process things, the way I think, how quick I am … It’s just a couple of percent, but those last couple of percent take the longest to get back.
VN: Did you have to take any medication to deal with those issues, such as anti-depressants or anything like that?
A: No — that was an offer on the table. I’d rather work through it with a psychologist, which is what I did, as opposed to just medicating. My wife and my parents and my team were just amazing, amazingly supportive. So without them, it would have been a lot tougher to be back here today.
VN: What did Jonathan (Vaughters) say to you?
TD: He’s also been nothing but supportive — fantastic — no pressure on my shoulders. (He said) not to come back before I was ready, and take your time to come back, when you’re at your best again, and don’t worry about a thing, we’re behind you.
VN: Do you do any local racing before you came back here, or was it straight back into the ProTour?
A; No — this is my first mass-start race in 10 months.
VN: It must have been a really strange but nice sensation, right?
TD: Yeah, every day this week is being getting better, and I feel more and more comfortable moving through the bunch, taking risks, move around the way I have to … so it’s been getting better every day.
VN: How about the shock to the system — Lance has been saying he’s been feeling pretty tired after each day?
TD: I have the same feeling. Not that the racing has blown me out of the water or anything, but it’s definitely feeling like it’s something I haven’t done in 10 months. But I feel like I’m just absorbing it all and I’ll recover from this race next week and I’ll be a lot stronger from it.
VN: What’s your speciality — what do you like?
TD: I’m good in the time trials, climbing and stage racing.
VN: So you’ll be looking towards California?
TD: I won’t be doing Tour of California; I’ll be doing Tour de Langkawi (next), and my first big goal of the season will be the Giro d’Italia.
VN: So you’re down to ride in Garmin-Slipstream’s nine-man team for the Giro?
TD: As long as everything goes well with my recovery back into racing. Obviously there’s still a few question marks, so I have a pretty open schedule; if things go well, I’ll add in more racing, things like that. But that’s what my eye is in.
VN: Where would you say you’re at, out of 100?
TD: Well I don’t know … this race is a little tough to tell. I mean, every day hasn’t been a huge selection (at the finish); it’s been a just hard field sprint most days. There hasn’t been any days where I’ve had to be at LT for 20 minutes up some epic climb, and I haven’t done a time trial or anything like that. But in terms of this race, I would say I’m at 70 percent. But like I said, I’m improving drastically every day, and yesterday or the day before was probably a hundred percent difference from how I felt at the beginning.
VN: If your recovery’s going okay, you must have done prepared well to get to this point?
TD: A lot of good foundation work just to kind of regain my durability, and now with the racing, there’s little rhythm changes, the really hard snaps that you can’t really replicate in training — just reabsorbing all that is my big goal fitness-wise at the Tour Down Under.