Oh dear, things are not going as well as hoped: I got all excited after Circuit Cyclist Sarthe, which Andy finished - although I was a bit miffed that we had no coverage of it - and he said afterwards that he was feeling good.  But now he's crashed and abandoned another race, the unpronounceable Brabanse pijl.

According to the report, he had a bad crash, and hurt his hand, but got up and rode on ("Go, Andy, go!") but when he reached the final destination, instead of doing four (I think) laps, he only did one, then retired.

Here he is at the beginning, looking all bright-eyed and tufty-headed:

Mind you, less pleasing, here is an interview before the race - seldom have I seen such a non-happy, non-smiling Andy: watch it, and tell me what you think.

There have been some comments lately to suggest that Andy is off form, past his best, a no-hoper for the Tour, etc etc.  Well, *shrugs shoulders and makes pfff! noise with Gallic gesture* that might be the case, I'm not a DS and I'm not privy to his training schedule - although in the video, he does say that he has done more training this year than ever before, which can only be a good thing.

If I had to take a guess, I'd say that being bounced into three teams over three seasons can't be good for the soul, nor good for the rhythm.

I also believe that luck comes into it: not in the doom and gloom sense of "oh dear we're having bad luck this year" being a self-fulfilling prophecy, but in the sense of "we've had some bad luck this year: it's not down to lack of preparation, poor form, inadequate training or bad bike-handling skills - it's just bad luck."

So we'll have to see how things pan out tomorrow, at the Amstel Gold. Velonation point out that it's a long way to the Tour, but they do admit that the Schlecks are not showing their 2011 form yet.  Nice to see a news report that says that they are not in good form, without making rude remarks about it! Some of the forums, and especially Twitter, are on a real Andy-hate-fest at the moment.

I asked LLB why there should be so much hate of Andy, in particular: he commented that it's often disillusioned "fans" who thought he was good, got all keen about him, then took it personally if he "let them down" by not winning. Or by not attacking, or by not finishing a race, er hem. Something to do with these people feeling that they've been made to look foolish in some way - some imaginary way.

It is also a fact, much lamented by me, that if you go back a year and read the comments, many of those fangirls have moved on.  (Although I do know that some of them do still read the blog, they just don't feel moved to comment, which is fine *waves to Armchair Schlecklanders* as long as they still enjoy reading about cycling and, occasionally, about OGL)  I guess people can "grow out of" following particular athletes.

Oh well!

Just to give more joy to the cycling world, Tony Martin - the "Dripping Cod" as he is known - former lead-out man for Mark Cavendish, has been knocked off his bike while out training, resulting in some serious injuries. He was on a cycle lane as well, which makes it all the more annoying, and some woman driver drove across it, knocked him out, broke his eye-socket, jaw and cheekbone, and he has now been found to have hairline fractures in his shoulderblade and upper arm as well. Ouch.

And as for the Amstel Gold, riders are already dropping like flies, according to this report from Velonation: the worst news in this collection is that Johnny "Barbed Wire" Hoogerland might be out, he has a sore throat and is not sure if he'll be ready to ride.

So, fingers crossed, everyone, that both Schlecks manage to start, finish, and get a place in the race tomorrow!