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A cast and pending surgery for Van Uden |
 Jun 10th, 09. Imagine riding 120km with a broken wrist. That's what kiwi Roman Van Uden did at Philly to make sure his team got the support they needed.
130km into the 250km Philadephia International Championship, Roman Van Uden of Land Rover Orbea crashed. A rider at the front of his bunch swerved, creating a chain reaction that sent everyone headed to the gutter hard on their brakes. 
Team Photo: Roman Van Uden (c)Lyne Lamoureux
"I checked over the bike, threw the back wheel out, got a new one from Mavic support, grabbed a musette bag full of gels and Clif bars and got back on the steed," Roman told Sarah Christian from RoadCycling.co.nz "I had to get back to the bunch quickly before the next time up the Manayunk wall and to get the food to my team mates." "Both my wrists hurt pretty bad, my left significantly worse, I couldn't put any weight on them which meant climbing the 17% Manayunk in the saddle," he said. Van Uden sees his chance for success slip awayRoman determined that since he couldn't climb well his chance of challenging for the win was over. Van Uden went into this race with great form having won two races in the preceding month.The first was his standout win in the Tour of Gila criterium against a peloton packed with talent including legendary riders Lance Armstrong and George Hincapie. The second win was a local race on May 27th where the 20 year old rode 90km to the start line, got himself into a breakaway and 130kms later was first to cross the line. This was great training for Philly which Roman previously called "a race of survival." Not one to throw in the towel when his own chances faded, Van Uden switched roles to that of team domestique. "I did everything I could to help my team by going back to the Rover for bottles and setting the guys up for the Wall, holding them in good position at the front of the bunch, figuring each climb would be my last as soon as the pace went on."
A close call with the wheels of another team carVan Uden's Philly almost got a whole lot worse when he was all but taken out by another team's car.
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