Why Boasson Hagen’s shingles might ruin Tour ride: Bradley Wggins.

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Why Boasson Hagen’s shingles might ruin Tour ride: Bradley Wggins.

Boasson Hagen. Shingles endanger tour ride.

Bradley Wiggins is talking big again about the Tour de France. Maybe the only last minute thing that can destroy his plans is a chicken pox virus.

Yup. his tour teammate Evald Boasson Hagen (the rider formerly known as Eddy Junior) is now suffering from shingles. This painful and annoying rash has forced him out of the Norwegian Road championships and maybe off the Sky Tour roster.

Why? Not only are shingles unpleasant, they’re fairly contagious. If you’re Bradley Wiggins, feeling confident, happy, focused and on form, having a teammate with shingles on the team bus, hotel and dinner table is not what you had in mind. “Sorry mate, no rashes me for, thank you.” Hard enough just dealing with Contador and Schleck.

We won’t be surprised to see Boasson Hagen dropped from Sky’s Tour roster — not for his own well-being but for that of their star Bradley WIggins. The Norwegian has already started medical treatments for the shingles but this is not something that clears up quickly and can be painful for weeks after it

There’s been too much hard work, to much build-up, too much planning and training and suffering to suddenly have everything wiped out because of a contagious chicken virus. Wiggins himself announced that he has “the form of my life” and that even with a fourth place two years ago, still hasn’t fulfilled his Tour potential. So beware the shingles.

David Brailsford, the Uncle Fester of cycling and team manager of Sky will be talking an extremely close look at the medical reports. This will be a rash decision and it will be anything but a rash decision.

We’re wishing a speedy (it better be) recovery for Boasson Hagen but we’re thinking there’s at least a 50% chance he won’t be anywhere near Bradley Wiggins in July.

By |2019-02-03T16:18:55-08:00June 24th, 2011|Bradley Wiggins, Radio Shack, Tour de France|4 Comments

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4 Comments

  1. Alex June 24, 2011 at 12:14 pm - Reply

    Is it contagious if you've already had it? Most people in uk have it as children. Don't know about wiggo though.

  2. TwistedSpoke June 24, 2011 at 10:30 pm - Reply

    A good medical question. I assumed you can get it more than one time. Matt

  3. Richard July 3, 2011 at 8:21 am - Reply

    If you had chicken pox then you cannot catch shingles from someone else. The virus lies dormant and can be triggered to cause shingles in later life from low immune system, stress etc. If you did not have chicken pox as a child then you will develop chicken pox rather than shingles if caught from someone with shingles, if that makes sense

    • TwistedSpoke July 4, 2011 at 12:14 pm - Reply

      Richard, thanks for the precision. We here at Twisted SPoke do not have a medical officer so this is a big help. Matt

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