“I want to succeed again. I won a Tour de France on paper and I have won stages. I was Andy Schleck, I was someone, I want to become that again.” So said Andy Schleck to Cyclingnews in April this year.
On Tuesday he pulled out of the 2014 Tour de France, casting a long shadow over his future in pro cycling.
It’s not a withdrawal for anyone to turn their nose up at, his crash in London during Stage 3 saw him severely damage ligaments in his knee. He may require surgery.
But it’s an immensely concerning development for the 29-year-old, who was considered a future legend of the sport just two years ago.
The end of Stage 2 of the 2014 Tour de France saw all the pre-race favourites take turns at the head of the peloton, testing and goading one another. It was a spectacular site, reminiscent of the 2010 Tour’s Stage 8.
On that day four years ago, Alberto Contador and Cadel Evans finished 10 seconds behind stage winner Schleck. It was this Tour that Schleck would win “on paper”, beaten by Contador on the road by 39 seconds, before Contador was stripped of his title in 2012.
Yet in 2014, on the day Vincenzo Nibali pulled on the Maillot Jaune with a two-second lead on Contador and Chris Froome, Schleck pedalled into Sheffield one minute and 19 seconds behind.
True, Schleck had entered the race as a domestique for Trek’s team leaders – older brother Fränk and Haimar Zubeldia – and true, it was a tough, hilly stage.
But the man who once tore up the Col du Tourmalet and Col d’Izoard struggled over Holme Moss. Furthermore, that man is younger than Froome, Contador and Nibali.
That man is Andy Schleck?
Of course, Schleck has not been the same since suffering a lower spine fracture in early 2012. However, his training commitment has long been questioned.
It’s an odd accusation to level at someone who finished top two in the Tour three years in a row. But Schleck has always struggled with time trials, and questions were often raised as to whether more time in the wind tunnel may have seen him fend off Evans in the 2011 Tour, when the Aussie took the Maillot Jaune from Schleck in the penultimate stage – a time trial.
Schleck himself acknowledged he needed more work in 2011.
“I know I’m lacking in the race against the clock. I have to gain power and strength and I have already started working on it,” he said.
“Not to mention my position on the bike that is not necessarily the best.
“I cannot lose the Tour again because of a time trial.”
Recently, Trek’s directeur sportif, Kim Andersen, also wondered about Schleck’s commitment, though this time it was a question of overall desire, rather than a specific part of the Luxembourger’s training.
“He needs more work. You slowly need to realise how much you need to work when you get older,” Andersen said.
“I am convinced, as he always said, if he wants to come back, if he really wants to, he can. I’m convinced of that.”
With a knee operation possibly in Schleck’s immediate future, whether he “wants to come back” is again the key question.
But geez I hope he does.
Watching Schleck get out of the saddle, attacking his rivals and the rising road ahead, was one of modern cycling’s greatest images. That skinny, fair kid who looked like he’d be blown over by a stiff breeze could, in fact, blow the peloton away.
He belongs at the tête de la course, trading blows with Froome, Contador and Nibali.
I want him to succeed again. I want him to be Andy Schleck again.
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