Roger Hammond on the lonely road back to the Olympic Games from his garage
Exclusive interview: The former British national road race champion discusses the challenge of weeks spent training in isolation recovering from two career-threatening crashes
Roger Hammond was winding through the south of France in the Midi-Libre stage race when he crashed, but in his mind he was on the road to the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The Games were only a few months away and, aged 26, Hammond was in the form of his life. The classics specialist was in line to represent Great Britain in the Olympic road race up until the moment he hit the ground and his wrist bone splintered in six places.
“I had to have my wrist replated and put back together,” Hammond tells The Independent. “It knocked me off my Olympic preparation. I missed out on the entire selection procedure and so I missed Sydney, even though I recovered in time to go to the Olympics. The irony was I was in the form of my life, I had just won three professional races.”
Unable to ride on the road, Hammond had locked himself away in his garage for three months and taken out his frustrations on his exercise bike. But riding away in solitary confinement brought new, unforeseen problems. “I created more difficulties for myself because I was sweating so much, so I ended up getting friction problems just from riding in sweat-sodden kit all day. My groins were in pain and it was not much fun at all.”
And just as much as the physical challenges were the psychological battles he faced. “The Olympics Games was supposed to be the highlight of my year. You have your own personal goals, but it’s easier to select the guy that’s riding on the road than the guy in his garage. That was an added stress, but if cyclists gave up there would be no more riders around. No one checks up whether you’re riding your bike, so my drive was just getting through each day, and the goal was the drive. I didn’t enjoy the experience, but I didn’t mind the focus. I was actually more focused, I was so determined to come out the other side.”
Hammond got back on his bike after the Olympics and began targeting the end-of-season World Championships, but as if his year hadn’t been hard enough, he suffered another crash in the build-up in a remnant of the first incident months before. As he sped over the cobbles riding down to the final corner at Franco-Belge, travelling around 80km/hr, his handlebars suddenly snapped. “They hadn’t been changed since my Midi-Libre crash,” Hammond explains. “I hit the ground so hard that the titanium plate in my wrist pulled the fractures open again.”
This time he was sent to see a high-profile surgeon in Belgium who had built a reputation repairing top tennis players. Hammond was told his wrist needed lengthy time to heal in order to avoid major long-term problems, and so he went back to the garage for another lonely five-week stint.
“There’s something about it that brings a new determination. You feel like you’ve gone through so much that you’re going to do it properly. If you really apply yourself, you can achieve some amazing things. I think going through that process – obviously I would have preferred to have gone to the Olympics – but I didn’t, and instead of going down the pub I won more bike races, just to prove that I could and to make sure I was back where I was meant to be.”
In 2003 Hammond was crowned British national road race champion and booked his place at the 2004 Games in Athens the following summer, where he finished a highly creditable seventh in the road race. It came a little later than planned, but four years after crashing down on the road in France, Hammond finally achieved his Olympic dream.
In association with Voltarol. For more information about our products or to report an adverse event with one of our products please contact 0800 783 8881.