VAIL — At 7 o’clock Thursday morning, Tom Danielson woke up from four hours of sleep and about four hours of annoying symptoms from a severe intestinal illness. At 3:09 p.m. he was to ride arguably the biggest time trial of his life.
When he woke up, he turned to his wife, Stephanie, and said: “I’m not going to start. I don’t want to get last place. I might get time cut.”
Stephanie had kept him afloat through some lean years of mediocrity and wasn’t about to stop with him in third place at the USA Pro Cycling Challenge.
“I said, ‘Tom, sit up,’ ” Stephanie said. ” ‘You can do this. I’m here to tell you and you already know I’ll be OK if you stop the race. But you know you’re not going to.’ “
So Danielson forced himself to do a practice run on the 10-mile uphill course from Vail Village up Vail Pass. He wound up a remarkable fourth, 33 seconds behind winner Levi Leipheimer, and stands fourth overall, 21 seconds back.
Team doctor Kevin Sprouse treated Danielson for gastroenteritis, and he finally kept food down Thursday morning. His pep talks didn’t hurt, either.
“It’s been a great year for me,” Danielson said. “And even though I didn’t win today, which I really, really wanted to, I accomplished something pretty big in my book.”
No one knows what caused the virus. However, many suspect he picked it up on the gravel road Wednesday going up Cottonwood Pass. Danielson said he saw sheep droppings on the road and the germs possibly got on his water bottle.
Amateur cyclists in Aspen who climbed Cottonwood that day experienced similar but milder symptoms.
John Henderson and Natalie Meisler, The Denver Post
