Julien Camillini's Injury Update

Julien suffered a bad hand injury back in May at the 3rd round of the Nissan UCI world cup in Andorra. After a pretty good start to the World Cup with a 10th and 13th Julien was fired up and determined for a podium in Andorra. In his qualifying run, he had the second fastest split time but on the lower part of the course, then slipped on a root and crashed into a tree flat out. Adrenaline got Julien back into his run and he was able to finished 12th - Julien was in considerable pain with. After a trip down to the local hospital in Andorra it was confirmed Julien had pushed the knuckle back on his forth finger and broken the metacarpal bone requiring an operation to reset it and insert a screw to hold the bone together. Julien had the operation back in France and was hoping this would fix his hand and speed up the healing process so he could be back for the 5th round in Maribor. Unfortunately the screw ended up causing Julien a lot of pain as it was digging into the muscle and flesh in his hand and he ended up having to get the screw removed once the bone had healed. Once the screw was taken out, Julien met the team at Alp d'Huez for the Mega Avalanche although at this point though he hand no feeling in his 3rd and forth fingers or the outside of his palm. He tried to ride and grip the bars tightly but the pain was too much and he couldn't hold onto the handlebars for more than a minute. Julien went home again and back to the hospital to see a nerve specialist. It was confirmed that a nerve had been damaged, one that runs through his hand and arm. This was caused either from the injury or the screw that was put in to fix his hand - there was nothing that could be done but only time would heal the nerve. Since then Julien has been continuing with his training in preparation for the rest of the season and especially the World Championships in Australia in just under 2 weeks time. Last weekend Julien had to compete in a race in France to confirm he was fit to go to the World Championships with the French National Team. Although Julien's fitness, power and speed was there is was evident that his hand was not going to be 100% in time for the worlds. So it was decided by everyone that Julien would not be able to compete 100% and maybe not even be able to hold on for a full run - he will not be going to the World Championships. Julien is bitterly disappointed - as we all are here at Team Chain Reaction Cycles / Intense. He had trained so hard this winter and continued to train hard on his fitness and power whilst having his hand injury. Julien is hoping his hand will improve enough for the world cup finals in Schladming but only time will tell. Julien wants to send out his upmost apologies to all our sponsors and thanks everyone for supporting him this season. Nigel Page Team Manager - ChainReactionCycles/Intense www.CRCintense.com