It was a three-step event, if you missed it: on the Saturday, a short road race in which Andy finished just 6 seconds back, with the bunch: then a very short TT, in which he came 44 seconds down on the winner, in 65th position of 121 riders. Quite respectable, considering what happened the last time he went out on a TT.
Then on the Sunday, a longer day of racing with lots of loops - towards the end Andy was in the chasing bunch, and at one point he even made his own attack, which was excellent. Not a huge attack, but people were dropping like stones behind him, and he looked quite comfortable.
At the end, he came in with the tail end of the bunch, but he didn't give up! From 121 riders, only 60 finished the race, so although coming 57th of 60 sounds like a poor result, it's actually more important to realise that half the field just gave up! Otherwise he'd've been 57th of about 117, allowing for a few that failed to start in the morning.
So hooray for Our Andy, back on track, and getting better every week.
According to the Radioshambles site, he was asked "is the old Andy back?" to which he replied that he had never been dead.
Nice one, Andy!
Most important of all, he said that he enjoyed riding his bike, so cheers and hoorays for Our Andy!
Here is the CyclingNews article:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cyclingnews.com/news/schleck-i-was-never-dead?ns_campaign=news&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=cyclingnews&ns_linkname=0&ns_fee=0
LE
It's good to hear Andy still enjoys riding.
ReplyDeleteIt is also good that the nasty comments are subsiding, at least for a while. Although,I did see an article that basically said Cadel Evans was doing so poorly he didn't even beat Andy Schleck in the TT.
emjay
Historically, riders have great years and awful years and nothing years sometimes in between. I wish all the critic's would learn this.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't mean "it's over" it simply means not as good a year for this one. Boonen's had some horrible years...now Cadel..folks need to lighten up and realize that these are just men. Doing their best iin the moment.
LE
http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/04/news/schleck-i-cannot-dream-of-winning-the-tour-this-year_280623
ReplyDelete“When I am good, everybody stands behind you. When things are not going [good for] you, then you see who truly stands behind you,”
ReplyDeleteWe're behind you, Andy!
*virtual hug*