Tour of Beijing is ‘the beginning of 2013’ season for Andy Schleck

Tour of Beijing is ‘the beginning of 2013’ season for Andy Schleck

Andy Schleck of Team RadioShack-Nissan could not register a single win in the 2012 season which has mainly been surrounded by injuries.

The cyclist crashed during the Criterium du Dauphine 2012 and fractured his pelvis which restricted him from riding all the major cycling events of the season.

However, the cyclist has now fully recovered and is fit to test his legs at the last World Tour race of the season, the Tour of Beijing.

While most of the cyclists are ending their 2012 seasons at the Chinese race, Schleck noted that his 2013 season in-fact begins right through the Beijing event.

Andy’s first race after the crash was at the Binche-Tournai-Binche last week and although he could not finish the race but his recovery was pretty prominent.

The 27-year-old was a runner-up at the Tour de France 2011 and was amongst the favourites to claim an overall victory at the race, especially in Alberto Contador’s absence.

However, the lady-luck was not in his favour as he struggled to even start the race off,  fighting with his fitness and his brother, Frank Schleck had to ride the Tour alone after a period of five years.

Andy noted that his main goal behind riding the Tour of Beijing is to ensure his peak form right through the start of the new season.

“I’m going to spend the whole winter somewhere in Spain where there’s good weather and I’ll train there,” he said.

While commenting on his injury he said, “In the beginning, the doctors said that six weeks was the normal time it would take for the fracture to heal,” Schleck explained.

“After six weeks, I went to Switzerland to train in the mountains, but after a week, I had pain again”.

“I went back to see the doctors and it turned out that I had an inflammation of the hip and that put me off the bike for a long time again,” he concluded.

The biggest goal of his career remains a top overall position at the Tour de France, even though he was awarded the top spot after Contador’s disqualification from the Tour de France 2010.

It will be interesting to see, if the younger Schleck makes a successful comeback at this year’s Tour de France, riding into Paris in yellow jersey.

Posted by Ahmed Babar on Oct 12 2012. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.