Hamilton Won’t Mail It In

LIMOGES, France —  Tyler Hamilton isn’t in this Tour de France to be a happy second- or third-place member of the podium. His dream is not to finish second to Lance Armstrong, or to be known as the “other” American challenging for cycling’s greatest prize.

Hamilton isn’t in the Tour de France to become a cuddly, feel-good story of grit and determination, either. That was for last year when Hamilton, whose tiny frame seems likely to shatter like fine crystal if dropped, rode for three weeks with a broken collarbone he suffered during the first of the 20-stage race.

Bill Hamilton, Tyler’s father, remembers that day. “I went to work in the morning and it was a sad, morose day,” Bill said. “We had gotten the word that Tyler was out of the race. By the time I came home for lunch, there was a party at the house. Tyler had started the stage!”

Hamilton’s grim perseverance through the pain, the images of his drawn face, his shoulder taped as tight as possible and the way he came on to win a stage into Bayonne by making a long, solo breakaway, made Hamilton’s 2003 Tour nearly as memorable as the one ridden by Armstrong, his former teammate and mentor. Armstrong won his fifth consecutive Tour. Hamilton finished fourth.

“It wasn’t enough,” Hamilton said. “I feel as if I can do more.”

Hamilton’s way always has been to want to do more.

He grew up in Massachusetts as an Alpine skier. He had exceptional talent, his father said, and went to the University of Colorado to join the ski team.

Cycling was a cross-training method and an activity to relieve stress until Hamilton crashed on the slopes, fracturing his back and ending his ski career.

That would not be his last crash, nor the end of his broken bones, but it did make Hamilton rethink some things. “I’m a competitive guy,” he said. “I changed my focus.”

Until three years ago, Hamilton was a worker bee on the Armstrong team. “When Lance won his second Tour, it struck something in Tyler,” Bill Hamilton said. “He realized he might be capable of accomplishing more in the sport.”

To do that Hamilton had to leave Armstrong’s team, and last year it seemed he had found the perfect situation with CSC, a Danish group headed by former Tour rider Bjarn Riis. Hamilton said he looked at Riis as a second brother, and Riis had tears in his eyes on the day the aching Hamilton won his stage last year. Riis pulled alongside Hamilton on that day, reached through the car window and clasped Hamilton’s hand.

But then CSC made a run at Jan Ullrich, the German who is the 1997 Tour winner and a five-time runner-up. And Riis made it clear, Bill Hamilton said, that the focus of CSC, was, rather than making his son a Tour champion, to strengthen the entire European racing circuit.

Tyler needed to make a choice.

“It was the hardest thing he’s ever done, that’s what he told me,” Bill said. “But he had to make the switch.”

Hamilton joined a new Swiss team, Phonak, becoming the clear team leader and having the say in picking team members, same as Armstrong does for United States Postal.

“I’m 33, and time is getting short,” Tyler Hamilton said. “Leaving Bjarn was very difficult and I know it hurt him, but I had to look at making the most of my time.”

As the Tour moves into the second week after a rest day Monday, Hamilton is 36 seconds behind Armstrong but ahead of everybody else considered a challenger for the podium.

And back home there is a huge rooting section for Hamilton. He has quietly started the Tyler Hamilton Foundation. It doesn’t get the kind of publicity Armstrong’s cancer foundation does, but Hamilton has men and women across the country who are as faithfully committed to rooting for Hamilton as Armstrong has in cancer patients who feel rejuvenated by every mile Armstrong pedals.

Michelle Wykoff, 38, has multiple sclerosis. Hamilton has become committed to raising money for MS. Why? Because a friend’s mother-in-law suffered from the disease and Hamilton was touched.

Last fall, Hamilton took a group of MS patients on a cycling trip in the Alps. Wykoff was part of the group. “What can I say? Tyler touched me as a person,” she said. “In a huge way, he affected all of us. His commitment to what he does and his commitment to us, I think about that every day.

“If he could win the Tour, if he stood at the top of that podium, it would make a difference to so many people.”

It is what so many cancer patients have said about Armstrong too.

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Southern California Chapter, will stage a fund-raiser for Hamilton’s foundation by playing host to a live viewing of the Tour’s Stage 13 Saturday at the Edwards Alhambra Renaissance 14. Deirdre Moynihan, executive director of Hamilton’s foundation, said the idea is to instill Hamilton’s spirit into those watching the race.

Hamilton’s father said nothing his son does surprises him. Not his commitment to the foundation, not his riding 24 days with a broken bone, not stepping up to take a chance on a new team this year and, should it happen, absolutely not winning the Tour.

“Why not?” Bill Hamilton said.

“Why shouldn’t he?” Wykoff said.

“Why not me?” Tyler Hamilton said.

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At a Glance

After a rest day Monday, the ninth stage of the 91st Tour de France awaits:

* Yellow jersey: France’s Thomas Voeckler of Brioches La Boulangere.

* Next stage: Stage 9, Saint-Leonard-de-Noblat to Gueret, 99.73 miles.

*--* OVERALL LEADERS N. RIDER Country Team Time 1. THOMAS France Brioches La Boulangere 33:03:36 VOECKLER 2. STUART O’GRADY Australia Cofidis Credit Par 3:01 behind Telephone 3. SANDY CASAR France fdjeux.com 4:06 behind 4. MAGNUS Sweden Alessio-Bianchi 6:27 behind BACKSTEDT 5. JAKOB PIIL Denmark Team CSC 7:09 behind 6. LANCE U.S. U.S. Postal-Berry Floor 9:35 behind ARMSTRONG 7. GEORGE U.S. U.S. Postal-Berry Floor 9:45 behind HINCAPIE 8. JOSE AZEVEDO Portugal U.S. Postal-Berry Floor 9:57 behind 9. J.E. GUTIERREZ Spain Phonak Hearing Systems 10:02 behind 10. ERIK ZABEL Germany T-Mobile Team 10:06 behind 11. TYLER U.S. Phonak Hearing Systems 10:11 behind HAMILTON

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