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Fatigue sends Creed stateside

Published: Apr. 11, 2005

For every high in bike racing, like George Hincapie’s first podium at Paris-Roubaix, it seems there’s an equivalent low. Just ask Hincapie’s Discovery Channel teammate Mike Creed, who’s back in the States for a medical checkup after suffering through an extended bout of fatigue.

After wrapping up the January 28-February 6 Tour of Langkawi in Malaysia, where he finished 37th overall, the young pro returned to his home in Girona, Spain, rested up for a couple of weeks and then resumed training.

“Training was going good,” he said during a phone chat with VeloNews from his old hometown of Colorado Springs, where he’s spent the past week and a half, doing an occasional training ride with his longtime friend Danny Pate (Jelly Belly-PoolGel) and waiting on test results.

“Tyler Farrar came to town, we did a couple 100-mile days, and I got this stomach bug, started vomiting. You think, whatever, it’s just a stomach bug. But I’ve just been laid out. Every time I get on the bike, my body’s just aching.”

So far, there’s no indication of precisely what the problem is, beyond what is an abnormally low hematocrit for a Colorado mountain boy – but whatever it turns out to be, it’s already cost him a ride at the April 19-24 Tour de Georgia, where last year he rode strongly in the service of a victorious Lance Armstrong, finishing 77th.

It’s been a frustrating experience, Creed said.

“I think, ‘I’m on Discovery,’” he said. “You want to race well. This is a great opportunity and you’re not able to take advantage of it.”

Still, there’s plenty of season left. And if his tests bring good news and the doctors approve, Creed said he’d like to tackle a little Southwestern stage racing before heading back across the pond to Girona.

“If my results come back okay, I’d like to do Vuelta de Bisbee and Tour of the Gila,” he said. “Just kind of sit in, without any real ambitions – just remember what it’s like to pin a number on my back.”