Having lost a chunk of time yesterday and any chance of winning his second Tour de Langkawi, Tom Danielson has taken the decision today not to continue in the race. The American was the only non-starter on today’s seventh stage, the longest of the event, and took that decision as he feels his health is not optimal.
He described his symptoms in a video interview conducted yesterday and published below.
“Crashing is pretty hard, but when you crash like that in a sprint finish, it takes a lot out of you. I’ve been doing the best I can, but obviously it’s not what I wanted,” he said. “It is like you have got the flu. You are just so achy. Your body doesn’t work because it’s just trying to repair itself.”
“My right leg is so swollen, and there is so much muscle damage and hematomas – it doesn’t work. I tried to go with those guys [Serpa and the other attackers) at the beginning, then relaiszd it wasn’t close to possible.
He said then that he intended to take a couple of days easy, then try to get into a breakaway. However his final comment in the interview suggested that he had some worries on his mind.
“I just have be real careful with my crash here, that it doesn’t turn into something really bad.”
Unfortunately for him, his Twitter feed subsequent to that showed that things did indeed head in that direction.
“Bad 24 hours for me,” he stated yesterday evening. “Body is all messed up and now my right leg has an infection. Super swollen feels like it weighs 200 lbs.”
That was later followed by anther message stating that he could barely walk as his leg had got so stiff.
This morning Danielson confirmed via the same medium that he had decided to withdraw from the race, describing the situation as brutal and annoying.
He was the highest-placed American finisher in last year's Tour de France, netting eighth in his debut.
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