Andy Schleck Discussion thread.

[Christian]

Calling Christian.

Any update on Andy?

No decision made public yet as to participation in Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Personally I think he shouldn't start FW, but he might well try just to see how the knee holds up. After this week, he is supposed to start in Romandie, so if there is a chance to fully recover until then, I'd opt not to start in FW or Liège.

He did not do x-rays, but preliminary diagnoses included something wrong with the synovial bursa or osteochondral damage. The team tries to treat the knee with acupuncture.

In post-race TV interviews, Andy seemed quite depressed. "I almost cried on the bike, not from pain but from disappointment", he said. At the same time, he tries to see the positive, saying that if the crash had happened at 10-15km/h higher speed, the damage could have been far greater.

He says his form is good, and that he is the lightest he has ever been. He is also satisfied with the number of race days he got under his belt so far.

 

[T-Nielsen]

No decision made public yet as to participation in Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Personally I think he shouldn't start FW, but he might well try just to see how the knee holds up. After this week, he is supposed to start in Romandie, so if there is a chance to fully recover until then, I'd opt not to start in FW or Liège.

He did not do x-rays, but preliminary diagnoses included something wrong with the synovial bursa or osteochondral damage. The team tries to treat the knee with acupuncture.

In post-race TV interviews, Andy seemed quite depressed. "I almost cried on the bike, not from pain but from disappointment", he said. At the same time, he tries to see the positive, saying that if the crash had happened at 10-15km/h higher speed, the damage could have been far greater.

He says his form is good, and that he is the lightest he has ever been. He is also satisfied with the number of race days he got under his belt so far.

Andy needs to be 100%+ to do anything in FW but he could do well in LBL with less. So in that sence it would make sence to stay out of FW but maybe it would be better mentaly to race.

 

[Angliru]

Yeah, I thought about asking the same question in my first post, given that Cunego has more impressive palmares than Schleck. Then again, I don't know that Damiano is as dreamy as Andy. There's an explanation in here somewhere for this Andy-love, but I'm not sure it's been identified yet.

Andy it seems to me, became the champion of many of the Armstrong fans and many of those that couldn't find it within themselves to root for Contador. He was the anti-Contador. The fact that primarily because of Contador he was never able to get that grand tour victory (on the road at least) only seemed to draw the battle lines even broader. Cunego had no steady rival after Simoni retired and really had no controversial moments in his career other than the Giro drama of 2004, that would've made cycling fans choose sides. The fact that he's essentially been a non-factor in the most recent years and a shadow of his former self with little attention drawn to himself makes him less of an interest to the media. Andy is in the news lately for his failures and his struggles to return to his previous level. Additionally he and Frank make a an attractive pair for the media to discuss with their supposedly boys-next-door-looks and reported charming personalities.

 

[Afrank]

No decision made public yet as to participation in Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Personally I think he shouldn't start FW, but he might well try just to see how the knee holds up. After this week, he is supposed to start in Romandie, so if there is a chance to fully recover until then, I'd opt not to start in FW or Liège.

He did not do x-rays, but preliminary diagnoses included something wrong with the synovial bursa or osteochondral damage. The team tries to treat the knee with acupuncture.

In post-race TV interviews, Andy seemed quite depressed. "I almost cried on the bike, not from pain but from disappointment", he said. At the same time, he tries to see the positive, saying that if the crash had happened at 10-15km/h higher speed, the damage could have been far greater.

He says his form is good, and that he is the lightest he has ever been. He is also satisfied with the number of race days he got under his belt so far.

Thanks for the update Christian, really hoping he will be able to start Liege.

 

[Christian]

Final decision to be made this afternoon (unsurprisingly).

On Monday he did a short individual training on flat terrain, but still with pain in his knee.

Here a picture of his baby boy Teo:

 

[hrotha]

Final decision to be made this afternoon (unsurprisingly).

On Monday he did a short individual training on flat terrain, but still with pain in his knee.

Here a picture of his baby boy Teo:

Look at him do nothing. He certainly takes after his father.

 

[Christian]

Look at him do nothing. He certainly takes after his father.

Lol, nice one hroths!

Conflicting information:

"He did a little loop along the canal without insisting too much. Everything is fine, apparently his knee is not making him suffer anymore", said Kim Andersen yesterday.

Andy said that his knee still hurt "a bit", but that it "was no comparison to Sunday after the race, when it was red and swollen". He elaborated on the treatment: "Sunday night we treated it with laser until 11pm. That seems to have had an effect. I think it'll be alright. In my head, I will ride Flèche Wallonne!".

Almost apologetically, he added: "I would almost prefer to have visible injuries than this knee problem, where one doesn't see anything".

After the race, he often spoke of "the f*cking knee" in interviews.

http://www.lequotidien.lu/les-sports/55566.html

 

[Christian]

Andy Schleck to start Flèche Wallonne, according to tageblatt.lu:

http://www.tageblatt.lu/sport/story/Andy-Schleck-am-Start-22101754

 

[ferryman]

Andy Schleck to start Flèche Wallonne, according to tageblatt.lu:

http://www.tageblatt.lu/sport/story/Andy-Schleck-am-Start-22101754

Thanks again for the updates. Not sure it sounds the right decision though if he does start.

 

[ferryman]

Andy it seems to me, became the champion of many of the Armstrong fans and many of those that couldn't find it within themselves to root for Contador. He was the anti-Contador. The fact that primarily because of Contador he was never able to get that grand tour victory (on the road at least) only seemed to draw the battle lines even broader. Cunego had no steady rival after Simoni retired and really had no controversial moments in his career other than the Giro drama of 2004, that would've made cycling fans choose sides. The fact that he's essentially been a non-factor in the most recent years and a shadow of his former self with little attention drawn to himself makes him less of an interest to the media. Andy is in the news lately for his failures and his struggles to return to his previous level. Additionally he and Frank make a an attractive pair for the media to discuss with their supposedly boys-next-door-looks and reported charming personalities.

I vehemently disagree with the Armstrong link on a personal level I like the Schlecks, always have since the rumour came out that Andy junior just breaking into the Pro ranks was actually better than his big brother. Then took an interest.

As it happens I'm an even bigger Contador fan and a massive Cunego fan to boot. Hell, I've followed Valverde all his career too

Here's my top 6 in favour:

Nah

 

[Angliru]

I vehemently disagree with the Armstrong link on a personal level I like the Schlecks, always have since the rumour came out that Andy junior just breaking into the Pro ranks was actually better than his big brother. Then took an interest.

As it happens I'm an even bigger Contador fan and a massive Cunego fan to boot. Hell, I've followed Valverde all his career too

Here's my top 6 in favour:

Nah

The word "many" that I used was meant to leave room for those like yourself that don't fall within the parameters of my post.

I'm a huge Simoni fan so it took me a while to be able to root for Cunego. I've followed Valverde since the beginning of his pro career and have been a fan since then. I think the force-feeding of the Schleck's by the Anglo print media drove me to not be much of a fan. It's not as bad as what they're doing with all things that are Sky but it was enough to annoy me.

 

[Jelantik]

I really think he should have rest his knee. What good can he do if he is not 100% for FW? If he bangs his knee again in FW, he is going to definitely out of LBL. I thought LBL is his goal out of the three Ardennes?

 

[chiocciolis_calves]

Maybe because Cunego only produced a really strong result in that one GT, Baby Schleck did aftall do well in one GT a' year from 2007-2011, missing a podium only once, but was teammate with the winner and won the white jersey. Cunego was never the only one to challenge an in form Contador in the mountains.

Kid Cunego also won four Classics, compared to Andrew's one. Hell, I'd give the nod to the Kid for that one stage of the 2011 Tour de Suisse alone, which was one of the more exciting performances I've seen in recent years.

 

[chiocciolis_calves]

Andy it seems to me, became the champion of many of the Armstrong fans and many of those that couldn't find it within themselves to root for Contador. He was the anti-Contador. The fact that primarily because of Contador he was never able to get that grand tour victory (on the road at least) only seemed to draw the battle lines even broader. Cunego had no steady rival after Simoni retired and really had no controversial moments in his career other than the Giro drama of 2004, that would've made cycling fans choose sides. The fact that he's essentially been a non-factor in the most recent years and a shadow of his former self with little attention drawn to himself makes him less of an interest to the media. Andy is in the news lately for his failures and his struggles to return to his previous level. Additionally he and Frank make a an attractive pair for the media to discuss with their supposedly boys-next-door-looks and reported charming personalities.

A plausible hypothesis. I just kind of wish he would either go away or the fanboys would give it a rest. One of the two. Sadly, I have a feeling we'll be sitting here next year with the usual suspects speculating what it might take to see Andy almost win another Grand Tour or put in a really good dig in the Ardennes.

 

[happychappy]

A plausible hypothesis. I just kind of wish he would either go away or the fanboys would give it a rest. One of the two. Sadly, I have a feeling we'll be sitting here next year with the usual suspects speculating what it might take to see Andy almost win another Grand Tour or put in a really good dig in the Ardennes.

This is a discussion forum, fortunately it's not limited to the things only you wish to discuss.

 

[Christian]

A plausible hypothesis. I just kind of wish he would either go away or the fanboys would give it a rest. One of the two. Sadly, I have a feeling we'll be sitting here next year with the usual suspects speculating what it might take to see Andy almost win another Grand Tour or put in a really good dig in the Ardennes.

Welcome to the forum. Might I suggest for the next time to try and read through a few pages in a thread before replying. Asking for "the fanboys to give it a rest" makes no sense. The only person that could qualify as a fanboy would be me, all the others have either left or been banned. The majority of the discussion lately can be summarized by

a) more or less neutral fans expressing their hope to see Andy return to his previous level, in order to have another rival for Froome
b) the discussion on whether or not this is plausible to happen
c) certain posters continuously expressing their disdain for Andy (seeing that you are new to the forum, I won't bother you with a history lesson, but long story short there used to be a pro- and an anti-Andy thread and this "discussion thread" now includes both)

So again, besides me there are no fanboys that could go away, and I ain't goin nowhere so get comfortable

Again, welcome to the forum

 

[happytramp]

Again, welcome to the forum

I'd hazard a guess he's not new but a returning banned user.

 

[Peter von]

Kid Cunego also won four Classics, compared to Andrew's one. Hell, I'd give the nod to the Kid for that one stage of the 2011 Tour de Suisse alone, which was one of the more exciting performances I've seen in recent years.

yes he did, a very exciting rider indeed, but he was never the second best at anything, Andy was the second best stage racer for a few years(or at least a lot of people thought he was) and many thought he would end up being the best at some point, that made him much more exciting than Cunego to a lot of people and gained him many fans, some of whom still think Andy holds the potential for greatness and could release it sometime before 2019. Also it doesn't hurt that the races Andy performed well in get's more media attention than the ones Cunego won, but mainly .

 

[Contadoraus Schlecks]

I'm a fanboy also. Anyway, did he start today?

 

[Purplegirldk]

I'm a fanboy also. Anyway, did he start today?

yes according to their twitter

 

[Contadoraus Schlecks]

yes according to their twitter

Thanks for the info

Hope he gets through it

 

[Butterhead]

I´m wondering if Trek is actually paying him salary?
What he delivers is embarrassing.

 

[Afrank]

Welcome to the forum. Might I suggest for the next time to try and read through a few pages in a thread before replying. Asking for "the fanboys to give it a rest" makes no sense. The only person that could qualify as a fanboy would be me, all the others have either left or been banned. The majority of the discussion lately can be summarized by

a) more or less neutral fans expressing their hope to see Andy return to his previous level, in order to have another rival for Froome
b) the discussion on whether or not this is plausible to happen
c) certain posters continuously expressing their disdain for Andy (seeing that you are new to the forum, I won't bother you with a history lesson, but long story short there used to be a pro- and an anti-Andy thread and this "discussion thread" now includes both)

So again, besides me there are no fanboys that could go away, and I ain't goin nowhere so get comfortable

Again, welcome to the forum

I demand you include me as one of the Andy fanboys as well! I'm about as fanboy of Andy as it gets!

Andy to win LBL Sunday by 12 minutes! He'll solo in from a 100K attack. It will be domination on a scale never before seen!

 

[chiocciolis_calves]

Welcome to the forum. Might I suggest for the next time to try and read through a few pages in a thread before replying. Asking for "the fanboys to give it a rest" makes no sense. The only person that could qualify as a fanboy would be me, all the others have either left or been banned. The majority of the discussion lately can be summarized by

a) more or less neutral fans expressing their hope to see Andy return to his previous level, in order to have another rival for Froome
b) the discussion on whether or not this is plausible to happen
c) certain posters continuously expressing their disdain for Andy (seeing that you are new to the forum, I won't bother you with a history lesson, but long story short there used to be a pro- and an anti-Andy thread and this "discussion thread" now includes both)

So again, besides me there are no fanboys that could go away, and I ain't goin nowhere so get comfortable

Again, welcome to the forum

I've read this forum since its inception. That's the funny thing about the internet. Something like 97-98% of readers never post.

Part of the problem here is on me. I simply wasn't clear enough. Rather than devoting bandwidth and newsprint to riders who are relevant, we get these stories on Andy, as you see yet again today on this site if you go to the homepage. That is driven by the fact that these outlets perceive there are people, quite correctly, that find this soap opera interesting. I do not. Foloowing Frank Vandenbroucke years after he was winning anything was interesting, I suppose, in a morbid, train wreck sort of way. There's nothing like that here, just an also-ran who hasn't done anything in years who sits anonymously in the peloton when he doesn't tangle with gravity. When he was "at the top," I found him to be an annoying whiner, along with his brother. More than a bit precious. Some of you undoubtedly disliked Armstrong. You wished him and his fanboys to go away because he and his followers bled into stories that really didn't involve him and were distractions. That's how I feel when I read a thread or a news story about an upcoming race and find discussion of this character. Did you also scold those folks who wished Lance and the fanboys to just go away?

 

[chiocciolis_calves]

This is a discussion forum, fortunately it's not limited to the things only you wish to discuss.

I'm marking you down as a "yes" in the offended category.