Andy's out of the Tour: hooray!

Before you all throw things at me for being hard-hearted, hear me out.

Today the news broke that Andy won't be riding the Tour as he has "fractured the sacral bone of his pelvis" and won't be riding a bike at all for 4-6 weeks.

It happened when he fell during the Dauphine TT, of course: we all saw those photos of the heavy fall, and the external damage that it did: well, two days later he retired, in  pain, and went home for the usual x-rays and so on.

It appears that the x-rays didn't show anything, but he had an MRI which revealed the fracture, which shows that it's worth having private medical care.

As an aside, do we think that pro cyclists have season tickets to their local hospitals? Or should I say, their nearest private hospital?  I know that they have team doctors, but do we think that they have a "pet" hospital, wherever they are based?

(note for non-UK residents: over here we have a two-tier system:  free medical care -allegedly - if you have lots of time to wait and don't mind catching a new infection while you are there: or "private" medical care which costs a bomb but you get superb care and the hospitals are clean.)

Personally, I would assume that any professional sportsman would want private medical care: certainly it's staggering to me to hear of all these collarbones which get plates in them, and the guys are back riding within just a few weeks. Every broken collarbone I've known of in the UK means weeks in a sling, and months of pain and stiffness afterwards. I can't imagine that they heal any faster than I do, so I can only assume that they get rather better medical care.

Anyway, to end this digression: poor old Andy was still in pain, so he had the scans, and now we know he has a fractured bone, and won't be cycling for a while.

Am I downhearted by this news? No! Of course, I don't want any cyclist to be hurt or in pain, and of course I hope that he gets better as quickly as possible, but come on guys, there is a massive silver lining here:

Andy now won't have to compete in a race that doesn't suit him, during a period when his form is not quite where it should be,  and where he and his confidence have been subjected to a quite extraordinary amount of stress, what with firstly the responsibility of the Leopard team, and then the horror of the takeover, not to mention the recent media, er, issues that he has been having.

No, instead of quite possibly struggling in the Tour, he can target la Vuelta - hey Andy, watch out for the zombies - as well as Lombardy, the Worlds, and - apparently - the Olympics! Whoo hoo! Andy is coming to London!