Frank Schleck broke his collarbone during today's stage of the Tour de France and is now out of the race.
“To be or not to be? That is the question”. After today’s TdF stage,well,I think that mr. Shakespeare won’t mind if I borrow this sentence from his masterpiece Hamlet.In fact I believe that the main question that this stage has left unanswered (especially for the Schleck fans) is:to be or not to be (satisfied with today's stage results)? So,let's try to give an answer.
Already yesterday evening,as you may have noticed from my last post,me was terribly afraid of today’s stage.In fact the thought of guys like Basso,Frank Schleck and Menchov (a man who can crash also while riding uphill) riding on cobblestones,together with other 188 riders,each of them trying to stay at the front,simply terrified me.
“To be or not to be? That is the question”. After today’s TdF stage,well,I think that mr. Shakespeare won’t mind if I borrow this sentence from his masterpiece Hamlet.In fact I believe that the main question that this stage has left unanswered (especially for the Schleck fans) is:to be or not to be (satisfied with today's stage results)? So,let's try to give an answer.Already yesterday evening,as you may have noticed from my last post,me was terribly afraid of today’s stage.In fact the thought of guys like Basso,Frank Schleck and Menchov (a man who can crash also while riding uphill) riding on cobblestones,together with other 188 riders,each of them trying to stay at the front,simply terrified me.
This morning Basso said: “During the cobblestons sections I’m going to close my eyes and open them just when I come back on the asphalt”.Of course he was just joking,but he gave a very good idea to this Fangirl.But since Fangirl can’t recognise what is dangerous for her mental health and what isn’t,she kept her eyes as open as never before during today’s stage,so that she could enjoy the riders approaching the cobblestones sections in a great hurry and notice how frightened some of them (Menchov and Basso,to say two names) looked.
With about 40 kms to go,then,Frank Schleck crashed.The helicopter showed us some riders touching each other on the cobblestones and me began to whisper: “What the fuck are they doing?” I stopped my whisper after the 'fuck' part because of Cassani’s scream: "Frank Schleck has crashed!". I was in panick.Pure cyclistic panick. Two SB riders stopped next to Frankie and tried to check his conditions.However,it was evident that Frank was in pain.
You can have bad crashes in races like Amstel Gold Race and be ready to take part in the following races,but you can’t crash like that in a Grand Tour and hope to be at the start the following day.So,as soon as I saw Frank in that situation,I understood that his Tour was over and that the collarbone curse had probably striked again.
The cameras soon abandoned Frank in order to follow the race that,after the crash (it’s sad to say,but it’s true) had become much more exciting.
The cameras soon abandoned Frank in order to follow the race that,after the crash (it’s sad to say,but it’s true) had become much more exciting.
At the head of the race,after Hesjedal,there were now Fabian Cancellara,Hushovd,Geraint Thomas (I had told you the boy is good!!),Evans (after all,he was a mountain bike rider) and Andy Schleck.Although Frank had crashed,in fact,little Bro was there,ready to save us from a total desaster.And,with him,there was the greatest Roubaix rider of the world.At least, something was spinning in the right side for SB tifosi.
Behind the blonde Luxembourg rider,with about 30” of delay,there was a group including Armstrong and Contador.But then,all of a sudden,Cancellara started to ride faster,Armstrong punctured and the time gaps became bigger.Soon the men at the front reached Ryder Hesjedal,the last of the breakawayers (and former mountain bike rider as well).Behind them Menchov (to Logic's surprise,he hadn’t crashed) and Vinokourov were pulling hard at the front of Contador's group.Behind them,then,sir Lancelot was fighting hard to come back on another group of riders,helped by Popovych and by some team cars.Eventually Armstrong managed to join the other riders with about 4 kms to go.
In the meanwhile the first group of riders was arriving in Arenberg.Cancellara could have attacked in the last kms,but decided to look after Andy until the very end of the stage (what a champion!).Hushovd easily won the stage,while second was Thomas and third was Evans.Andy was 5th.
The following riders (the ones who formed the ‘Contador’s group’) arrived pulled by Vinokourov.He was really giving it all and someone underlined that he had worked as a super helper for Contador and that he was still trying to help him in the last km.Little detail: Contador had lost the wheel of the guys pulled by Vinokourov, and so with his effort the Kazakhistani allowed Van Summeren,Wiggins,Van Den Broeck,Menchov and Roche to gain 20 seconds of advantage on the Spaniard.
Behind the blonde Luxembourg rider,with about 30” of delay,there was a group including Armstrong and Contador.But then,all of a sudden,Cancellara started to ride faster,Armstrong punctured and the time gaps became bigger.Soon the men at the front reached Ryder Hesjedal,the last of the breakawayers (and former mountain bike rider as well).Behind them Menchov (to Logic's surprise,he hadn’t crashed) and Vinokourov were pulling hard at the front of Contador's group.Behind them,then,sir Lancelot was fighting hard to come back on another group of riders,helped by Popovych and by some team cars.Eventually Armstrong managed to join the other riders with about 4 kms to go.
In the meanwhile the first group of riders was arriving in Arenberg.Cancellara could have attacked in the last kms,but decided to look after Andy until the very end of the stage (what a champion!).Hushovd easily won the stage,while second was Thomas and third was Evans.Andy was 5th.
The following riders (the ones who formed the ‘Contador’s group’) arrived pulled by Vinokourov.He was really giving it all and someone underlined that he had worked as a super helper for Contador and that he was still trying to help him in the last km.Little detail: Contador had lost the wheel of the guys pulled by Vinokourov, and so with his effort the Kazakhistani allowed Van Summeren,Wiggins,Van Den Broeck,Menchov and Roche to gain 20 seconds of advantage on the Spaniard.
Did Vinokourov did it intentionally? Did he make a mistake? Did he pull so hard because he wanted to help Contador and convince him that Astana is the best team for him? Or was he trying to help,say,Menchov? Conspiracy theories are open.Anyway the stage classification says that Contador crossed the finish-line 1’13 after Andy Schleck,while Kreuziger and LL Sanchez arrived 1’46 after the Luxembourgian,Armstrong arrived after 2’08”, Gesink, Sastre, Leipheimer, Kloden after 2’25”.Basso lost more than 2 minutes as well.Also Chavanel lost some minutes and so the yellow jersey went back to Cancellara.
So,this was today's stage.Cancellara is back in yellow and Andy is now 6th in the GC (Evans is 3rd),while Contador is 9th and Armstrong 18th.As well as that,Team Saxo Bank is now the best team of the race (*ah ah ah to Radioshack!*).In a virtual trade,on the 'good things o the day' plate Saxo Bank fans have a big jump in the GC by Andy Schleck and the yellow jersey for Fabian.On the 'negative things of the day' plate instead there is Frank's broken collarbone.
Personally I believe that things could have gone much worse for the Schleck fans.But still,I'm terribly sorry for Frank.This time in fact he really had a great form and even Logic thought that he could have ended up on the Paris podium.Then,Andy will probably miss him a lot in the next days and this may influence a bit his morale.Last but not least,it's always hard to see a GC contender crash,because these guys organise their whole year in order to be at their best in July and win the Tour.Unfortunately,Frank's Tour finished at the edge of a cobblestone section,in the stage that he probably feared the most.Wishing him a good recovery,that's all from me now.
(Pic by Cor Vos)
It's amazing Frank hasn't been injured more with how often he famously falls but hopefully he'll be back, motivated to win Lombardia or something.
RispondiEliminaLogic thought about that as well,yesterday evening,while she was trying to cheer up Fangirl (with no results).
RispondiEliminaIt was predictable that,sooner or later,Frank would have broken something.I mean,Vandevelde breaks at least one bone every time he crashes,while Frank has never broken a bone in spite of all his dreadful somersaults and so on.
I've read that he will need about 7/8 weeks to recover from the crash,so I think he could even be at the start of Vuelta.Btw,I believe he'll surely come back to race Lombardy and all the other Italian races at the end of the year.After all,in the past he used to say that Lombardy was his favourite race together with Liége.