Andy Schleck pulls out of Tour de France: analysis
Roar Guru By zacbrygel, 14 Jun 2012 zacbrygel is a Roar Guru
- Tagged:
- Andy Schleck, Cadel Evans, Cycling, Tour de France
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Luxembourg cycling superstar Andy Schleck has pulled out of the 2012 Tour de France due to injuries suffered in last week’s Criterium du Dauphine.
A recent addition to Radioshack’s team, the climbing specialist – who was recently awarded the 2010 Tour de France title after the disqualification of Spaniard Alberto Contador for doping – crashed hard during Thursday’s 53km time trial after a gust of wind forced Schleck onto the ground.
Schleck finished the stage, but complained of terrible back and leg pain to his team after the stage. Obviously feeling the effects of his injuries, Schleck retired from the race 63km into Saturday’s sixth stage which gave all cycling fans some food for thought.
As Schleck’s team director at RadioShack explained: “He couldn’t pedal anymore,” “Since he crashed during the time trial the whole right side of his body was hurting.”
Schleck’s abandonment of this year’s Tour de France caps of what has been a terrible year for the 27 year old where he has also abandoned other top races such as Paris – Nice and the Tour of Catalunya as well as being forced to cut a training camp short in May in order to have knee surgery.
While the news of Schleck’s no show in this year’s Tour de France will make the race a little less exhilarating to watch, the benefits will be reaping for Cadel Evans.
In his quest to defend his Tour de France crown, Cadel Evans will welcome this news as he won’t have to worry about Andy Schleck attacks in the mountains and really now, the battle for the yellow jersey is now down to three: Bradley Wiggins, Frank Schleck and of course, Evans.
However if you think Cadel will have it easy in July then you are wrong. Bradley Wiggins is in the form of his career with a fantastic team behind him and we all know the threat that Frank Schleck poses; especially in the mountains.
Undoubtedly though Frank Schleck will be a stronger performer this year with the whole RadioShack team now behind him in July.
Unlike in previous years, the fact that Frank will have the whole team working for him in July is a major boost to his chances of stepping atop the podium on the Champs – Elysees, as now his rivals don’t have the team support factor as an edge over the Luxembourg rider.
Andy Schleck’s abandonment of this year’s Tour poses many questions such as:
Does this pave the way for Frank Schleck? Will Wiggins now be too strong? Is this the perfect break for Cadel? Or will a surprise packet shine? Or, does this hurt Cadel? He may need to break Wiggins in the mountain top stages. Andy Schleck was a potential candidate to help snap Wiggins. It could be a positive, or a negative.
You can attempt to answer these questions; or you could wait just 16 more days where all will be revealed. Bring on Le Tour!
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The Crowd Says (11) | Page 1 of Comments
Have Your Say
- Explore:
- Andy Schleck, Cadel Evans, Cycling, Tour de France
June 14th 2012 @ 12:51pm
Mat Coch said | June 14th 2012 @ 12:51pm | Report comment
Frank last year looked stronger than Andy, so will be a force to contend with now his team will be entirely behind his efforts.
There isn’t a mountain top finish though, and Frank can’t descend like Evans, a point which will be critical in deciding the Tour no matter how well Frank is climbing.
The Tour de Suisse will be a good indicator this weekend with two hard mountain stages on Saturday and Sunday. We know what form Cadel is in, and Wiggins.
Cadel has to start favourite, with Wiggins a close second and Frank loitering around on the third step of the podium.
June 14th 2012 @ 2:09pm
DanMan said | June 14th 2012 @ 2:09pm | Report comment
There is 2 mountain top finishes over the 25 catogorised climbs. Frank is not as explosive as Andy, so more likely to grind it out over the stage rather than bursts. Should help Wiggins more than Cadel.
June 14th 2012 @ 3:11pm
boes said | June 14th 2012 @ 3:11pm | Report comment
DanMan I think you are on the money, your post on another TDF article today said that Andy’s withdrawal will likely be a disadvantage to Evans, I think Andy could have helped break Wiggins on the climbs.
As zacbrygel wrote above, 16 days to go and the guessing can stop and the race begins, anything can happen over 21 stages – can’t wait.
June 14th 2012 @ 4:26pm
DanMan said | June 14th 2012 @ 4:26pm | Report comment
The other possibility is that now there is no andy and contador, more gc guys fancy themselves and are not waiting for the “heads of state” to do the main attacking – in other words there is no andy to gauge your effort by. Noone will be sure who will do the blistering attack and if someone does, do they have the ability to sustain it. They might get caught chasing the wrong person, or make the mistake of letting someone good get away.
If I was Cadel I would be looking to attack on each mountain stage – sky may hold on for 2 or 3 days but not all of them. Cadel knows he’s the better climber; force sky to chase and hope the other GC’s can follow him to help in the breakaway.
June 16th 2012 @ 9:51am
hamleyn said | June 16th 2012 @ 9:51am | Report comment
This year will be a bit like ’06, after Armstrong left. There was no definitive leader of the Tour. What happened? Pereiro was given half an hour and won the race. Took an almighty effort (and a fair amount of doping) for Landis to claw it all back.
June 14th 2012 @ 3:46pm
Sean Lee said | June 14th 2012 @ 3:46pm | Report comment
Despite his brother being crippled, it is definately a positive for Frank. He rode well last year and deserves to have a crack at being the protected rider. I’ll be watching with interest, although Frank can’t time trial either and could quite possibly lose the race in a similar fashion to his brother last year.
June 14th 2012 @ 4:51pm
Frenky said | June 14th 2012 @ 4:51pm | Report comment
With riders, such as, Kloden and Zubeldia the question also arises if Radioshack should name one rider as their main contender for the GC. Why not let them share the responsibility for a good classification and after the first time-trail or mountain stage.. then decide who will be their main man..
Although it will be a miss that A. Schleck will not compete in this years Tour.. it does make the Tour more interesting..
AND!
Let’s not forget about the Vuelta.. Contador v. Schleck.. That’s going to be interesting cause the climbs are more intense than in France.
June 14th 2012 @ 5:34pm
zacbrygel said | June 14th 2012 @ 5:34pm | Report comment
Definitely, good point. I can’t wait for Contador’s return and that should make the Vuelta very interesting if Shleck is returns in time.
June 14th 2012 @ 8:13pm
hamleyn said | June 14th 2012 @ 8:13pm | Report comment
Don’t see how Cadel or Wiggins will be buoyed by this. Andy was never going to contend on such a time trial heavy parcours as this. I don’t think he’ll mind but I don’t think it will exactly make him happier. In fact, I think this might hinder Cadel more than people think. An explosive Andy attack might be enough to drop Wiggins in the mountains but Cadel won’t be able to do it by himself (I don’t think). Maybe we’ll just see him epically grind it out and drop nearly everyone (including Contador and Sanchez) like he did on the Galibier last year when Andy won the stage.
That being said, it will be interesting to see how Frank goes without his brother. Andy did much better by himself in ’10 when Frank crashed out early because of a collarbone.
June 14th 2012 @ 8:25pm
zacbrygel said | June 14th 2012 @ 8:25pm | Report comment
Interesting thoughts. All of will be revealed very soon!
June 25th 2012 @ 12:52am
thurmcord said | June 25th 2012 @ 12:52am | Report comment
I for one, am glad to see the race set up for tt and possibly some bolder attacks in the early mountains. It was getting cliche. GC stayed close, seperate in the alps, or pyranees depending on which was second, tt specialist have to hope they stay within striking distance to win, CADEL!! But this year the mountaineers may have to attack early and often to put some time on the strongn, tt guys. I like Wiggins, he’s in good form, there is some risk that the team might gas trying to support the green jersey as well but I like challenges to these teams.