Andy Schleck semi-retires?

There's been quite a lot of speculation about what Our Andy is going to say in tomorrow's press conference *looks up times of planes to Luxembourg - drat, can't make it* .

It seems that the conference has been called by Trek, not by Andy personally, which I take as a positive sign: if Andy were just going to retire, the conference would have been organised by his agent, not by his team.

At present he's still coming back from the knee injury, we don't know yet whether he will be able to ride at the top level again - the damage to his knee is described as "possible career-ending" so there is the chance that he won't be able to compete again, and any team would be stupid to extend a contract to a rider that can't yet show that he can ride. What with the reduction in sponsors, team size, etc, every team is going to have to pick the very, very best it can afford, and there are plenty of riders out there without contracts, so I can't imagine Trek giving a precious slot to an injured rider.

So, what are the options? Apparently Trek had considered farming Frankie out to a pro-conti team towards the end of his ban, so that he could get some race miles into his legs. This didn't work out, but it's an interesting concept: maybe Trek will put Andy into a pro-conti team for a year. This would allow him to come back into form slowly, out of the spotlight, with very little pressure, and it would be very good for his ego to be the biggest fish in the littler pond. Ok there's the "shame" of dropping out of the major league, but we've seen a number of big riders do just that, due to lack of contracts - and lack of teams - at the top level. I think Andy could take it.

Maybe Andy will take a year off, on doctors' orders, to let this injury heal properly? That would be a viable alternative, as well: Frankie had a year off, Contador had two years off and came back strong and fit - and Andy is younger than both of them, so he has some years in hand. It's debatable as to which are the "best" years of his career: I'm not a sports fitness expert so I can't comment on that, but I would have thought he'd be able to afford another year off, before being considered "past it".

Or maybe he'll choose to retire completely. I'm hoping not, obviously, but if that knee is not recovering, then it might be the only option.

We'll find out tomorrow.