Tyler Hamilton has a boyish sprinkling of freckles across the bridge of his nose and permanent wind-burn on his cheeks. He wouldn’t be at home if he wasn’t out in the elements.
Hamilton was raised in Marblehead, Mass., a coastal town north of Boston that has produced several Olympic sailors. He grew up at ease on the water and on the ski slopes of nearby New Hampshire, relishing speed and learning to change direction at a second’s notice.
Pedaling a bicycle started as way to cross-train. It turned into a passion that carried Hamilton across the ocean to Europe, where he became one of the finest first mates in the cycling fleet, helping Lance Armstrong to three consecutive Tour de France titles.
Occasionally, along the way, people would take note of Hamilton’s versatility. He was consistently among the best in the world in time trials and able to hold his own in the mountains.
Late last season, after years of tacking toward his goal, Hamilton decided to catch the breeze and let it take him where it would. He left the U.S. Postal Service team and struck out on his own, as a team leader with the Denmark-based CSC-Tiscali squad.
Hamilton says he is rejuvenated.
“I’m 31 years old, and I feel like I’m 24 and just beginning my pro career,” says Hamilton, who was ninth overall, 53 seconds off the lead as the Tour enters its second week. “I feel like a little kid with wide-open eyes, giddy.
“I wouldn’t trade the last seven years with Postal for anything. What I learned was invaluable. But as a team leader, I’m young. The psychological part is very different–issuing orders, having confidence in myself. If you’re working for somebody else, it doesn’t matter how you feel. I’d just grind along and then watch Lance ride up the road.”
Hamilton also says he isn’t ready to be considered a true contender for the Tour de France. Many in the peloton would disagree, including his former captain, who said Hamilton is riding “at a new level” this season.
“He knows us, he knows the team and he knows my style of riding,” Armstrong says. “He’s a threat. In my opinion, he’s one of the favorites.”
Hamilton distinguished himself last month in his first major event as a team leader. He finished second to Paolo Salvodelli in the Giro d’Italia (Tour of Italy)–the first U.S. rider to reach the podium in that event in 14 years–despite riding the last two weeks of the three-week race with a hairline fracture and torn tendon in his shoulder.
The injury healed enough for Hamilton to start the Tour de France. His tolerance is such that it would have taken a lot more than that to keep him from the line.
“He is one tough cookie,” his mother, Lorna, puts it simply.
Hamilton refused an X-ray after injuring the shoulder in the third of three crashes during the first week of the Giro. The pain was so intense that he had trouble standing upright on his pedals while climbing, a position that requires a deceptive amount of upper-body strength.
He also had trouble raising his arms over his head in the traditional victor’s pose when he won a time trial in the race.
Was it foolish to keep riding? Maybe.
“To be honest, it’s something I’m proud of,” says Hamilton, who felt twinges in the shoulder again last week after coming out of the aerodynamic hunch the team time trial required. “It showed how much of a fighter I am to myself and my team.
“There were times I wanted to give up, but I thought, this can’t be happening–the team has worked too hard. A lot of the reason I didn’t give up was because they didn’t give up on me.”
Down-to-earth and almost perversely modest, Hamilton is one of the best-liked and respected riders in the peloton.
Much of his grounding comes from his family and early years in a town of 20,000 where he still is regarded with affection–but not adulation–when he returns.
“Tyler’s very well-rounded, and he came to the sport later than most–that gives him a better perspective sometimes,” says Lemont native Christian Vande Velde, Hamilton’s former U.S. Postal teammate.
While many top cyclists gravitate to teams where they are assured of prime billing, Hamilton is content to share the spotlight with French veteran Laurent Jalabert and Spanish star Carlos Sastre.
Danish journalists say Hamilton already is building a following in that country because of his accessibility and ready smile, even though he and his wife, Haven, still commute between Massachusetts and Spain and do not maintain a home in Denmark.
One of three children Hamilton was an exceptional downhill skier who competed for the University of Colorado ski team and crossed paths with double Olympic silver medalist Bode Miller on Cannon Mountain in New Hampshire.
Hamilton crashed while training when he was a sophomore in college and broke two vertebrae. His rehab included a cycling regimen, and as he delved deeper into the sport, he saw which way the wind was blowing.
Now, CSC director and 1996 Tour winner Bjarne Riis has incorporated skiing into Hamilton’s off-season workouts, allowing Hamilton to rediscover a youthful love.
“It’s like walking,” says Hamilton, who hadn’t been on skis in five years.
Although Hamilton still likes to refer to himself as a freshman team leader, he acknowledges he received a graduate education from Armstrong. After the Giro, Hamilton presented his teammates with Rolex watches engraved with the single word “Grazie,” or thank you in Italian.
“Lance Armstrong always made it a priority to tell the world how strong his team was,” Hamilton says. “I definitely made it a priority, and I made sure to thank them every day.
“Going into the Tour a lot of people wanted me to say that I’d be competing with Lance. I still feel I need to prove some things before I can say that. I hope to be duking it out with him, because that would mean I’m riding pretty well.”