Canada 1: Quebec

LLB and I always enjoy watching this race - I know that most of the peloton don't enjoy circuits, and I can see their point (especially when they are hanging off the back and have to cycle past their hotel entrance repeatedly) but as a spectator, I think circuits are brilliant.

And every year we watch this race - which is to say, every year for the last four years -  we talk about going over to Canada to watch this and Montreal. We are lured by the lovely Park, with the elegant spaciousness, the lovely trees, and the fact that we could clearly stand anywhere we wanted to.

We have even discussed standing on the "other" side of the roadway, holding up banners so the static camera could see them.

"But what would our banners say?" asks LLB.

Hmm, well,  mine would clearly say "go, Andy!" or something similar, which would be a bit odd if he were not riding. And we have no indication yet that the new Trek team will be better than RadioShambles at announcing their team more than five minutes in advance of the race starting...and we'd have to book the trip months beforehand... ah well, maybe next year.

Anyway, what of Quebec?

An interesting field, lots of big names, including Our Andy, much to my surprise, and they had given him number 1 as well - also to my surprise. I rather thought that Mr Spoilsport Becca would not be allowing Andy to race any more, and I was certain that, if he were, he would be relegated from number 1. But I was wrong - there he was, with number 1 on his back.

Alas, we didn't see him until a few laps from the end when he was suddenly spotted off the back, and our commentators (rather meanly, I thought) started saying "Oh dear, there's Andy Schleck falling off the back, well, we don't know where his head is these days," ("on his shoulders, usual place, stoopy" being the Schlecklander response at this point).."looks like he's going to be a DNF again.." but he was hammering up behind a team car and was clearly chasing back on.

At that point we get the action replay, and sure enough, he's pulling over with a mechanical and waving for the car.

So yar boo sucks, Carlton!

Unfortunately, despite chasing back on at high speed, and catching the back of the peloton in no time at all, the next we see is of him with a small group, obviously well off the back and not making any effort to chase back on.

*sigh*

I checked the Radioshambles site this morning, agog for more information, but he wasn't mentioned at all in the incredibly brief report. It would appear that Mad Dog Horner is Shack Rider Of The Month, and no other news is of interest.

The only bright spot is that the one and only Comment below the website report was a plaintive "What happened to Andy?"

So now we have Sunday to look forward to, the GP Montreal, and fingers crossed that Our Andy can make a slightly better showing there!