Schleck should give up yellow.

[Darrylc]

I will happily be saying "Bon Appetit" to you one day

Maybe

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

I agree Moose. He's only 26 and heading right into the prime of his life! Andy has a few areas that could use improvement, and I think he needs to win a stage race like Romandie, or even Tour of Luxembourg to help with his confidence, but he has a great future ahead of him, which may likely include some GT wins. So to give up on yellow after getting this close seems absurd.

Where are all those people over the last few years who said Cadel should give up on GTs?

What's the old saying? Winners never quit and quitters never win.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I agree Moose. He's only 26 and heading right into the prime of his life! Andy has a few areas that could use improvement, and I think he needs to win a stage race like Romandie, or even Tour of Luxembourg to help with his confidence, but he has a great future ahead of him, which may likely include some GT wins. So to give up on yellow after getting this close seems absurd.

What's the old saying? Winners never quit and quitters never win.

It's not absurd.
This was his last chance.

Next year Kruijswijk will enter the Tour. And after that the Wilco Kelderman dominance era begins...

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Next year Kruijswijk will enter the Tour. And after that the Wilco Kelderman dominance era begins...

Nah, they will lose too much time in the TT's to Lawson Craddock.

 

[erader]

That makes no sense. It's Andy's fault because Armstrong was nowhere near good enough to win early in his career? Point is, Andy is a Tour contender much earlier in his career than Armstrong was. What is it you propose Andy should do differently? He just needs to improve his TT and some descending. What else?

obviously you believe in AS. by your reckoning AS should win the tour more times than lance?

you could be right, but i've been watching bike racing for a long time and have seen a lot of unrealized potential.

schleck talks a good one but i just don't see the fire in his belly....otherwise he would be improving in weak areas and taking better advantage of his strengths.

for all of his fault's lance armstrong has the heart of lion. AS isn't qualified to pack his kit.

erader

 

[Carols]

No he shouldn't give up he has incredible talent. But he needs to change his attitude to a winning one and then work on his weaknesses; bike handling, descending, TT.

Without recognizing that 'I came 2nd, I'm not a loser, I'm not a loser' means he will settle for second, things won't change. That needs to change to Armstrong's '2nd is first loser' or Contador's 'I ride for victory, 2 or 24 they don't matter.'

Instead his strategy is play to his strengths, unless he can go on multiple 60km raids to get enough time, that just won't work. He has to many weaknesses to play to his one strength, IMO.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Nah, they will lose too much time in the TT's to Lawson Craddock.

Kelderman has no weaknesses. He'll even win the mass sprints and prevent Cavendish taking green

 

[pitchnduel]

He was in 1st place by 50+ seconds going into the time trial. He lost the yellow jersey by almost 2 minutes. This is why he is always 2nd. Can I just also say there is nothing wrong with 2nd place in TDF. I do not see a winner in this guy, it certainly has nothing to do with me liking or disliking him. I have never been a fan of Cadel, but I can respect the fact that he is an all round amazing cyclist. Great sprinter, great mountain climber, great descender, great at ITT. How many of these greats does AS really possess??

I'm not sure Evans could have legitimately been called a "great mountain climber" at any time before this Tour. Evans evolved as necessary. I don't see any reason why Andy cannot as well.

Andy has contested 4 Tours. Not counting '08 (when he rode in support of the winner and won the white jersey himself, exactly two riders have ever finished better than him. Contador and Evans...that's it. And, he's now finished ahead of each of them at some point. Only he has podiumed each of the last 3 years.

Frankly, I think tactics may have had as much to do with his loss this year as ability. He didn't know he needed to put time in Cadel in the Pyrenees. He was marking only Contador. That was a tactical error...which is something that young riders do. He has a lot of time to evolve both tactically and in required disciplines. He's already shown that he can compete at the very highest level. I'd say it's more likely that he will eventually win the Tour than he won't.

 

[killswitch]

It's not absurd.
This was his last chance.

Next year Kruijswijk will enter the Tour. And after that the Wilco Kelderman dominance era begins...

You are forgetting TGBM.
BTW this TDF was perfect for Love Boat - with the real racing happening in the 3rd week.

 

[Darrylc]

obviously you believe in AS. by your reckoning AS should win the tour more times than lance?

you could be right, but i've been watching bike racing for a long time and have seen a lot of unrealized potential.

schleck talks a good one but i just don't see the fire in his belly....otherwise he would be improving in weak areas and taking better advantage of his strengths.

for all of his fault's lance armstrong has the heart of lion. AS isn't qualified to pack his kit.

erader

Agreed. Not a fan of LA, but he, like Cadel, was an aggressive, extremely tough man. I only see AS as a talented boy at the moment, but a boy that has stopped growing, and does not have that true grit.

 

[the vagabond]

Nobody says Andy is going to or should give up. But I see no reason to think he will improve next year, so I'd say the chances of him winning are certainly no higher than they were this year.

And, remember, we already have The Myth of the 2011 Tour, courtesy of Moose: he would have won if he had ridden a decent time trial.

No, he would have lost even with a fantastic, Contador-equalling time trial.

 

[HL2037]

Andy has been working on his TT for years. This is as good as it get.

 

[Franklin]

Andy has been working on his TT for years. This is as good as it get.

With age it almost certainly improves. It has to if he will win a TdF.

 

[pedaling squares]

Andy Schleck has podiumed on 3 Tours and one Giro, all before the age when Armstrong won his first Tour.

And people are saying Andy should give up on yellow. Seriously, time for a reality check folks. The kid is talented and has a great career in front of him.

Well put. Unfortunately a lot of comments on a rider's potential in this forum are based purely on his popularity and not on his ability.

He was lucky there was almost no competition this year, or he wouldn't even have made the podium.

Ok, your initials are really appropriate. Even with all the crashes, no Geox, and Contador having ridden the Giro, I can't understand this claim. There were no flukes or gifts this year, each man on the podium earned his spot.

 

[Grayguard]

Hmm, seems to be some very contradictive opinions in this thread...
Imho Andy more than anything needs to improve his attitude. (I.e. How do you prepare? How do you win races? Are you willing to take risks - and make sacrifices?)
Second; improved TT and downhill would help too - but attitude is the main thing.

 

[the vagabond]

I don't really understand the "great career in front of him" comment. He's in his 7th year as a pro, which would place him probably near halfway in his career. His results have been consistently good all along, but without any remarkable improvement or remarkable wins. (He's a bit of an L-B-L specialist.)In fact, he seems to be on the same career path as Frank, who has now begun to decline slightly, IMO.

I think most of the comments have been pretty well reasoned and don't show any particular personal antipathy toward Schleck - certainly much less than had been addressed at Evans most of his career up until about a week ago.

 

[Irish2009]

Andy & Frank remind me of the Columbians of the '80's, some of the best climbers in the race, but not able to but a TT togeather to claim GC (& ITT's in the '80's were longer). Contador showed why he's a grand champion, next year Sammy Sanchez, Wiggo, Rolland and a few others will be up for GC with a bit more venom. Cadel has won his one and only tour
.

 

[Dead Star]

Andy and Frank would be superb super-domestiques. Always know what's happening behind them, can easily sustain long breakaways in the mountains, always solid in the TTT.

 

[cineteq]

Hmm, seems to be some very contradictive opinions in this thread...
Imho Andy more than anything needs to improve his attitude. (I.e. How do you prepare? How do you win races? Are you willing to take risks - and make sacrifices?)
Second; improved TT and downhill would help too - but attitude is the main thing.

Actually, first things first, without decent and improved TT skills, attitude won't help. But yes, he needs to be humble, make sacrifices, do preparation and start by winning different stage races as well.

Last but not least, his team tactics need to improve as well.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Well put. Unfortunately a lot of comments on a rider's potential in this forum are based purely on his popularity and not on his ability.

Bingo.

I'm out.

 

[BikerMiker]

They'll fiddle the course (they tried this time really) until a light climber like AS wins.

When I think about some of the courses in the early Mig days (multiple long ITTs) I doubt AS would finish top 20 on some of those courses.

 

[Bennyl]

If Andy took a lesson in preparing for a race to get everything out of the ability given to him as well as how to respect your oppostion from Cadel, he would win the tour.

Cadel leaves nothing to chance in preparation or in the race. I don't get the same impression of Andy.

Cadel respects all his opposition and will not be heard dismissing his competitors....and Andy... well..

 

[Catty69]

The problem he has got, is that the longer he goes without winning is that he will let other more younger contenders into the gap. He is the next big thing, until the others like Contador, Evans etc retire, but by then there will be another next big thing.

 

[Red Caboose]

A few years ago the same was said of Evans. However can Andy ever improve his time trial enough to win? This tour had short TT's and in the end Andy was a distance second. In future he will need to be more aggressive in the mountains to build a bigger time gap before any TT's. I can not see too many tours being as Andy friendly as this year, and he still came second.

He better grab a Tour win soon because some of the young riders this year will make life tough for him after the likes of Contador, Evans have gone.

 

[Escarabajo]

If his TT doesn't improve dramatically it becomes a REALLY long shot tbh.

In the last forty years there is no example of a similar bad TT rider winning a TdF.

I simply can't think of a single one.

*For those wondering check out the last TT of Sastre, van Impe and Pantani.
** Actually van Impe did a top five in a pancake TT several times.
***Sastre is by far the worst with 12th.
**** AC 2010 is also odd, but he won the flat TT the year before, so he's hardly a bad TT rider. And he took a lot of time in the prologue.

Marco Pantani in 1998

Lucien Van Impe in 1976

Sastre was decent TT but not very good. So maybe Schleck has a chance to improve but not be the best and win.