SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO
“I’m really disappointed. My stomach is full of anger, and I want to take my revenge … I will take my revenge in the coming days.”– Andy Schleck after losing the yellow jersey on stage 15.
“I didn’t know anything about the problems with Andy Schleck, but when I realized it I was already ahead of him. The only things that I saw was that he was beginning to attack and then he slowed down. I didn’t realize that he had a problem with the bike.” – Alberto Contador after the stage.
A lot of talking is going on after Alberto Contador’s decision to attack at the end of the final climb yesterday while Andy Schleck was struggling with his chain. After so much hard work from Andy and his team mates, losing the yellow jersey to an unlucky mechanical failure and an attack of strange character has without a doubt left a bit of bad taste in many people’s mouths.
The question is whether Contador should have waited for Schleck, or whether he was right to continue racing?
The recent precedents for waiting are well known: In 2003, Ullrich and the lead group appeared to wait for Armstrong when he crashed on the climb to Luz Ardiden.
And most recently, Fabian Cancellara neutralized the peloton following a massive crash on Stage 2 of this years Tour de France, which allowed dozens of riders – including Andy Schleck – to rejoin the peloton.
The argument made for waiting is that the riders want the Tour de France to be decided by strength and strategy, not accidents. Did Contador realized what had happened to Andy, as well as the question of whether or not the other riders would have stopped and waited with Contador since the race for the summit was really on at that point.
If Andy can take the jersey back before the final rest day on Wednesday, he will have just one more day of climbing to defend it before the time trial on Saturday, where its almost certain that Contador will finish ahead of Andy.
www.andyschleck.com – Photo: TDWsport.com
ANDY LOOKING GOOD IN YELLOW
Schleck trades White for Yellow!
The SPORTFUL equipped Saxo Bank rider Andy Schleck lived out one of his dreams by riding into the Tour de France’s yellow jersey in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. He attacked several times on the Madeleine climb and created what will be a head-to-head fight with Spain’s Alberto Contador.
After taking over the malllot jaune of Tour De France from Cadel Evans, 25 year old Andy Schleck said post stage “It might have been a dramatic day for Cadel but it wasn’t for me. It was actually a good stage. It was hard at the beginning and I like that a lot. Riders just kept on attacking and it was like real racing today. There was no fooling around. Alexandre Vinokourov tried at the beginning, Andreas Kloden tried… those are big names and we had to be wary.”
“We had Jens up there in the escape and he did a more than fantastic job – I don’t know what to say to thank him – and then Chris-Anker Sorensen, Jakob Fuglsang worked at the front of the peloton for me. Before that I had Fabian and Stuey, Nicki – everybody – who were fantastic today. They are all part of my jersey.”
“I don’t know how Jens did coming to the finish but when I looked him in the eyes in the last kilometer of the col de la Madeleine it was amazing what I saw. He wanted to help me get all the way to the top… but to be honest, I was on the limit.”
“I saw the yellow jersey the other day and I thought, ‘I want that!’ Right now I have it and I know it’s not going to be a piece of cake to hold onto it. But I have a good team around me and of course I’m happy that I have it. It’s a dream come true to have the yellow jersey but it’s a little bit sad because everybody kind of expected it from me… but it’s something big and I recognize what we’ve done here today.”
“On the final climb I attacked to try and drop Contador. It was not a test. I was going all out – I showed all the cards I had. If I attacked one more time I would have dropped myself. I’m actually pretty happy that he didn’t respond to what I was doing with one of his attacks. I was quite happy that we rode the last three or four kilometers together to the top,” said Schleck.
The determined Saxo Bank rider concluded by saying “I’m please because I’ve won a stage and now I’ve got this jersey. It’s fantastic. Now I’m in yellow and I’ve got 40 seconds on Contador and there’s a pretty big gap to everyone else – now I’ve only got one guy to watch.” www.andyschleck.com
Pre-Race: July 14 – Stage 10: Chambéry-Gap 179 km
July 14th is France’s National Day so look for a French rider to go for the win. The first ascent of the day, the steep Côte de Laffrey that leaves Vizille after 77km, will see some attacks. Then the Col du Noyer, a Cat.2, 7.4km ascent of 5.3%, that has the same tricky descent where Joseba Beloki crashed in 2003.
Photo: TDWsport.com
A Cancellara, Tour de France, souvenir came into the office today, including the race number 13 upside down. The King of Speed and Cobbles confirmed he also wore race number 13 upside down when he won the TdF prologue in 2007, “the same as I did in London. It brought me luck then and I thought it would bring me luck again.” he said to Sportful. read more…
Getting ready for La Grand Boucle
The SPORTFUL equipped Saxo Bank rider Frank Schleck took the overall win with a perfect time trial performance at Switzerland’s official Tour (June 12 – 20, 2010). Lance Armstrong (RadioShack) finished second overall, and Saxo Bank’s young talented Dane, Jakob Fuglsang rounded out the podium. read more…
Team Saxo Bank will be entering the Tour de France with two national champions with Fränk Schleck and Nicki Sørensen while Andy Schleck and Jakob Fuglsang will be wearing the national jerseys on Saturday’s prologue in Rotterdam.