Schlecks Depreciation Thread

[cineteq]

"If you look at the past, Lance Armstrong won the Tour seven times and you never saw him in any races other than the Tour."

Sorry to break the news to you, Andy, you're NOT Lance.

 

[LaFlorecita]

I don't know whether I should laugh or cry. I probably should do both.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

It's not an excuse and it's hardly a surprise. This much is true: he needs to be in better shape for the Tour, especially for the start (as he says). With Bruyneel as his boss it was clear this was going to be their strategy to achieve that ... what did you expect?

Do you, or do you not, believe Andy when he said he went "really deep" (his words, not mine) at País Vasco and Suisse?

For reference, at the Tour de Suisse he, over the course of 4 tough mountain stages, lost 6'10" in total to the noted climbing great José Joaquín Rojas. In the two stages he contested, Crans-Montana and Serfaus, he bested the Spanish climbing giant by 5 seconds and 13 seconds respectively, and was 147th out of 160 riders in the prologue.

Is that really the actions of somebody who went "really deep"?

 

[theyoungest]

Do you, or do you not, believe Andy when he said he went "really deep" (his words, not mine) at País Vasco and Suisse?

For reference, at the Tour de Suisse he, over the course of 4 tough mountain stages, lost 6'10" in total to the noted climbing great José Joaquín Rojas. In the two stages he contested, Crans-Montana and Serfaus, he bested the Spanish climbing giant by 5 seconds and 13 seconds respectively, and was 147th out of 160 riders in the prologue.

Is that really the actions of somebody who went "really deep"?

You forget the Grosse Scheidegg stage, he worked for Fuglsang there.

 

[Kvinto]

It's not an excuse and it's hardly a surprise. This much is true: he needs to be in better shape for the Tour, especially for the start (as he says). With Bruyneel as his boss it was clear this was going to be their strategy to achieve that ... what did you expect?

I fail to see how doing a 'really deep' Pais Vasco (yeah, he isn't invisible there, but 'really deep' ) and focusing on the Ardennes Classics are the reasons why he reaches the Tour in 'bad' shape. And of course i disagree on that Armstrong wasn't seen in races other than the Tour.

 

[theyoungest]

I think that if Cadel Evans (and before that Contador) winning the Tour has taught us anything, it's that the idea that you can't show your face anywhere but in July if you want to win the Tour is bogus.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

You forget the Grosse Scheidegg stage, he worked for Fuglsang there.

I included that. He gained a minute and a half on Rojas there. He lost nearly 8 of them to Malbun because he soft pedalled in with the autobus. You know, like you typically do when you're one of the greatest climbers in the world and you go really deep.

To be fair, Andy Schleck had 46 race days prior to the Tour last year.

He came top 10 in 7 of them. 7th in a TTT at Tirreno-Adriatico, 3rd in a stage of País Vasco, 3rd at LBL, 2nd on Sierra Road and 9th on Mount Baldy in the Tour of California, 2nd to Serfaus in the Tour de Suisse (from a breakaway) and 2nd in the Luxembourg national RR. So actually, Andy did a lot of riding, but pretty much no actual fighting for the win except at LBL - you'd expect an Ardennes guy and GC climber to be a lot more competitive than a best of 23rd in a road stage of Tirreno and 12th at País Vasco.

Let's compare and contrast with the guy that beat him at the Tour because Andy wasn't focusing enough on the Tour, shall we?

Cadel Evans only had 29 race days prior to the Tour last year. However, he was in the top 10 of 13 of those - 3 at Tirreno-Adriatico, 2 at Catalunya, 3 at Romandie and 5 at the Dauphiné.

Andy's stage races in 2011:
41st, Tirreno
13th, Critérium International
12th, País Vasco
8th, California
19th, Suisse

Cadel's:
1st, Tirreno
8th, Catalunya
1st, Romandie
2nd, Dauphiné

This actually shows there is more merit than I suspected in Andy's statement; however, I feel that the number of race days is the problem rather than the focus; it's plenty easy enough to be much more competitive and respectful of the calendar at large if you're more selective about which races you do - Evans picked and chose a calendar that suited him and was able to be strong at all of them; Andy doesn't seem to have sorted that 100% just yet.

 

[Christian]

Do you, or do you not, believe Andy when he said he went "really deep" (his words, not mine) at País Vasco and Suisse?

For reference, at the Tour de Suisse he, over the course of 4 tough mountain stages, lost 6'10" in total to the noted climbing great José Joaquín Rojas. In the two stages he contested, Crans-Montana and Serfaus, he bested the Spanish climbing giant by 5 seconds and 13 seconds respectively, and was 147th out of 160 riders in the prologue.

Is that really the actions of somebody who went "really deep"?

Lol you mean after his chain popped twice and he changed bikes. Impressive work looking all that up though. There were also 1 or 2 escapes I believe. He was clearly not in adecuate shape in Suisse which is kind of odd because he was quite good in California on Sierra Road even though he got dropped by Busche later on.

Anyhow I'm not argueing with the fact that they were poor performances I just don't see where the big deal is when he announces what everyone knew since they took on Bruyneel

Truth is he needs to be in better shape for July as he said. If this is the way they hope to achieve it then I say good luck

I fail to see how doing a 'really deep' Pais Vasco (yeah, he isn't invisible there, but 'really deep' ) and focusing on the Ardennes Classics are the reasons why he reaches the Tour in 'bad' shape. And of course i disagree on that Armstrong wasn't seen in races other than the Tour.

Idk if it is the right strategy either but what I was trying to say is everyone saw this coming from miles away so I was surprised that there seemed to be so much agitation around this. Fact is he needs to change something in comparison to last year and with Bruyneel it was always going to go this way. Then again the same preparation (with peaking in Ardennes) worked well in 2010 so who knows

Cadel's:
1st, Tirreno

That was quite amazing with 0 race days prior to the start

I feel that the number of race days is the problem rather than the focus

I think that's what he meant when he said

"I'll have to see how my shape is and whether I need more race kilometres or training kilometres."

Although he'll never be able to pull off a win straight from training or from the beach like others

 

[Echoes]

It did seem weird a Bore de France winner, riding the Classics and even Eroica going really deep. Crap mentality really. He doesn't even realize how refreshing it was, compared to his predecessors. At least if I get it right, he still wants to perform in the classics in 2012 ??

And at least, there's still Evans, Nibali and Gesink !

 

[uphillstruggle]

Evans picked and chose a calendar that suited him and was able to be strong at all of them; Andy doesn't seem to have sorted that 100% just yet.

It has taken him the best part of his career to get that build-up just right though. I think the problem is that build up is so specific now that a bad crash or a week of illness can mess up a given riders goals for the season. After that it is hard to tell weather it was the illness/crash 'going to deep' at the wrong race or simply the wrong build up.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

That was quite amazing with 0 race days prior to the start

Evans raced Eroica, like Schleck. They finished together fwiw - Evans 30th, Schleck 31st.

 

[Beech Mtn]

Lol you mean after his chain popped twice and he changed bikes.

<snipped>

What is it with bike chains and Andy? Are they sworn enemies or something? Seems like chains are always trying to jump off Andy's bikes for some reason.

 

[theyoungest]

Evans raced Eroica, like Schleck. They finished together fwiw - Evans 30th, Schleck 31st.

Don't think the Tirreno result would have been different if he'd skipped that one. Evans, like for instance Gesink and Horner, can simply train himself into form. These guys have a high base level. Which is what Schleck seems to lack.

 

[Beech Mtn]

Armstrong won the Dauphiné, Suisse and was always good at Amstel Gold Race. Kid doesn't know anything about cycling, ban him already. This stupidity is far worse than 50 pictogram clenbuterol.

Post of the week

 

[Christian]

Evans raced Eroica, like Schleck. They finished together fwiw - Evans 30th, Schleck 31st.

It seems we were both wrong

"Evans had only raced for two days before Tirreno-Adriatico but won with a combination of strong and intelligent racing, backed up by a solid BMC team that included Alessandro Ballan and an on-form George Hincapie"

Don't know what the other race was - anyhow, still amazing

 

[Libertine Seguros]

It seems we were both wrong



Don't know what the other race was - anyhow, still amazing

Probably some Italian one day race where he finished too far down for the results CQ picks up, I'd expect. ACF will know.

 

[theyoungest]

It seems we were both wrong



Don't know what the other race was - anyhow, still amazing

Wasn't it that race in Switzerland? Where only 10 guys finished because of the crap weather? The GP Lugano or something.

 

[hfer07]

Not really surprised with this latest "statement" from Andy-we're getting accustomed to his stupidity-what I cannot understand is why Bruyneel allows this kind of trash to come out, having already had two GC riders very eloquent & sharp on PR.
BTW I also suspected that Andy was going to follow that cycling pattern under the hog's care-which is going to raise a lot of questions when "astonishing" performances begin to appear while not having had enough Km in his legs....

 

[Dancing On The Pedals]

Tell me this is a parody: Andy Schleck is now saying that in the past he has not focused enough on the Tour.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/andy-schleck-focused-more-than-ever-on-the-tour-de-france

"Maybe sometimes I did a bit too much to prepare these races, like doing Pays Basque and going really deep. I was focusing on the Classics maybe too much, and I've got to change this year so I'm better at the Tour, especially at the start of the Tour," Schleck said. "If you look at the past, Lance Armstrong won the Tour seven times and you never saw him in any races other than the Tour."

Even by his standards, this is pretty good. What exactly is there between his ears?

 

[airstream]

probably he meant a number of racing days itself. hopefully you wont argue the ardennes and getting top-15 at the pays vasco require some effort. i dont get 1 thing. do you have to be least lA to try to implement his preparation system?

 

[The Hitch]

It did seem weird a Bore de France winner, riding the Classics and even Eroica going really deep. Crap mentality really. He doesn't even realize how refreshing it was, compared to his predecessors. At least if I get it right, he still wants to perform in the classics in 2012 ??

And at least, there's still Evans, Nibali and Gesink !

What we just naming random riders here?

 

[The Hitch]

hopefully you wont argue the ardennes and getting top-15 at the pays vasco require some effort.

lol, no ardennes dont require any effort

 

[T-Nielsen]

The problem with sharing a brain is, that occasionally the other guy has it.

 

[maltiv]

probably he meant a number of racing days itself. hopefully you wont argue the ardennes and getting top-15 at the pays vasco require some effort. i dont get 1 thing. do you have to be least lA to try to implement his preparation system?

Contador wins from January and thus honors every race he enters and its fans. Andy Schleck threats every race as if it's training which is disrespectful both to the race itself and to fans who care about cycling outside of July. I think it all comes down to laziness, the guy simply doesn't want to train hard for anything but TDF as he doesn't care. Even Armstrong had much better results outside of TDF than Andy has had the last two years. Then you have recent TDF winners like Contador and Evans who always ride to win, so it's not like it's not possible.

 

[issoisso]

At first I thought Andy might be joking, but then I remembered he has the comedic timing of lung cancer.

He's pushing new boundaries for stupidity every day.