Fingers crossed, Our Andy is going to be starting the Tour of Beijing next week, and we all hope that his pelvis is up to the job.
It was widely reported that he started Binche-Tournai-Binche but was unable to finish it, leading certain journalists to speculate that he wasn't fully recovered yet.
I must admit, it's clear that he's not fully recovered, so I don't quite see the point of racing, as opposed to continuing with the training - it's well known that training is no substitute for racing, and that it's just not possible to achieve the speeds and pressure in training that you would encounter in an actual race: but I don't quite see why Andy needs that speed and pressure when, I would have thought, he could tell from training rides that his backside is still not 100%.
(Only on the inside, Andy, my pet, only on the inside: on the outside, please be assured your backside is 100% of what it was.)
Starting races and not finishing them just fuels the "Andy Schleck is a quitter" stories that we all hate.
Still, I'm not his DS, and I am sure there are good reasons for it, so all we can do it sit and watch with fingers crossed, and hope that he finishes at Beijing.
From what I can make out, it's not a particularly punishing parcours, but I understand that long days in the saddle are currently the problem, rather than hills: and the Beijing course only appears to have one hilly day in it.
With all the Schleck-Shlack problems we've been having, it's actually a very good sign that Shack are prepared to send Andy to Beijing: they could easily have left him out, preferring to send another rider who is in better form, in order to support Eeee-bennati and get more UCI points.
After all, Shack are not exactly at the top of the UCI points rankings this year - they are currently sitting 12th, which is not brilliant - but of course this year there are only 19 teams chasing the 18 places, rather different from previous years, and as long as Shack have more points than Stinkoff - not hard, bearing in mind that Contador's points won't count, and he has 290 of Stinkoff's 385, oops - then they are unlikely to be in trouble.
So fingers and toes crossed, everyone: oh, and Andy, don't forget to pack your breathing mask.
For his mind, it could well be the most important race of his career....
ReplyDeleteBarbara
I hope not, Barbara: he acknowledges that this has been what he called a "dreadful" season - not just for his injury, but for Frankie's adverse finding as well.
ReplyDelete(Talking of which, I see that they have put the hearing back by a week - here we go again, poor Frankie. )
And as he hasn't raced for three months, he really isn't in any form to win the Beijing Tour. He knows it, the team know it, the peloton know it, we all know it.
We just want him to finish the race! *makes hands into megaphone in order to shout all the way to Lux* "Andy! We don't care if you come in last! Just do what you can!"
Coug
Dear Coug, I didn't mean for him to win this race.
ReplyDeleteI meant something like coming out in the open (alas smoggish) world again and perhaps even finding out if it's worth to continue with cycling.
For now I'm glad that the Chinese seem to like him and on most pictures he smiles.
Barbara