There's been a lot of speculation (no, not Schpleculation, sorry - well, maybe later...) that Andy and Frankie might forego the Tour this year in favour of the Giro.
Why? Well, in a nutshell, the Tour parcours doesn't really suit them: not enough mountains, too much time trialling.
(NB parcours = course: route + obstacles + road surface + activities along the way)
And of course a lot of people, who presumably have nothing better to do with their time, have been saying that Andy should try to win stuff, instead of concentrating on the Tour: that he should not use the earlier races as training, but should aim to get a few solid wins on his palmares, instead of "merely" coming second in the Tour for the last three years running.
At this point, being a staunch supporter of OGL, I will of course curl my lip, make the "Pfff!" noise and wave my hands about in a Gallic fashion. I'm pretty impressed with three podium finishes, personally, although of course I'd like to see Our Andy up there on the top step. And I would repeat that it's very easy to sit in a comfy chair and criticise other people, especially if you have (if "one" has) never actually been a pro cyclist, or a DS for that matter.
Bjarne Riis has been making rude remarks about Andy, he gave an interview to the Danish media with the headline: “Andy Schleck lacks the will to win the Tour de France” . Oh Bjarne, how grown up of you ("not"). Not only did he fling various insults at Andy, but he sang the praises of Contador in a sky-high, "I have been sniffing glue" sort of way. Well, frankly, that's pretty much what you would expect from someone who had Andy, then lost him: and whose entire team's points (nearly) came from just one rider, Contador, who is still riding under a cloud of suspicion. Not a nice situation for poor Mr Riis. Not to mention his sponsor problems.
Andy responded in a mature, sensible way, with thanks to Elle for the link to this VeloNews article - as she said in her comment, "Well ladies - I think our boy is all grown up...". As Andy says, "It's time for me to win the Tour".
In the article, Andy makes the point that although Bjarne paid him, it was Alain Gallopin or Kim Andersen who were in the car on the race days, which is a clear "Nyaar nyaaar nyaar" to Bjarne, in a very grown-up way. He also comments that he will be training harder. I don't think we can ask for any more than that. (Apart from more photos, possibly...)
But to get back to the original point, Andy may or may not be doing the Tour - if you read that article carefully, he doesn't actually say that he and Frankie will be there this year. However, he almost definitely won't be doing the Giro.
Why? Tour of California, that's why. The dates clash, and if you remember last year, the pair of them went to the ToC even though it's a non-UCI points race. And the reason for that? Well, that would be sponsor pressure. Trek - US company - were a major sponsor of Leopard, and oh look, the biggest stars of the team went to the ToC. This year, both Trek and the Shack are sponsoring the team, both are US companies, and both are going to want their major stars to do the US race.
I would have thought that Andy, Frankie and Chris Horner would be definites for the ToC, leaving Kloden and Jakob to head up the Giro team.
So it seems likely that the Schlecks will still be participating in the Tour this year ("Yay!") and we will have the chance to cheer them on again: and earlier in the year, we will all be dropping in on Boulderado to stay for the Tour of California, in the hopes that they will go through Boulder again, and that she will be able to do some top quality Schleck-stalking on our behalf.
Now for a slight digression: could it be an omen?
Today, my Leopard flags fell off the wall.
They've been up there, in my hall, (right, sorry about the quality, no flash on my camera-phone) since the Tour of Britain. But today they fell down.
I put them back up - and they fell down again. Are they trying to tell me something?
(And yes, I have bookcases on the half-landing of my stairs, I have books everywhere, they are taking over the house...)
Perhaps they are prompting me to update them with a red stripe and possibly some colouring-in of the logo.
Perhaps tomorrow I'll go to my haberdashery shop and see what they have in the way of red ribbons...
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