Schleck out of the Tour...?

[Herzog]

http://road.cc/content/news/59868-b...reportedly-out-tour-de-france-broken-vertebra

 

[Tomba]

SSN said fractured pelvis.

 

[dan_bo]

sounds chuffing nasty either way.

 

[Herzog]

Another obstacle (?) removed from the path of Wiggo; let's hope he remains vertical this time.

 

[jifdave]

To be fair schlek would have had to do some extreme climbing to claw back lost tt time this year.

 

[montage]

To be fair schlek would have had to do some extreme climbing to claw back lost tt time this year.

I think he was just planning on whining his way onto the podium

 

[PpPete]

Another obstacle (?) removed from the path of Wiggo; let's hope he remains vertical this time.

Didn't see AS as having any sort of form to challenge Bradley this season anyway. Brother Frank maybe, but certainly looks to me like Cuddles might be the main opposition. As for staying upright... he's got a very strong team to keep him near the front, and there is little more one can do apart from keeping fingers crossed.

 

[montage]

The downside of this is that one less GC contender means one less team assisting team sky - though I would imagine Frank will be confident of cracking the top ten and having a go at victory/podium, so this may not be an issue.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

It's not just Evans. I expect Nibali will look a lot better at the Tour itself and there's Gesink, Van den Broeck and Valverde too.

 

[Shadow]

Any others? I agree Nibali should be contending but don't think FSchleck will be there. He did not look fit at all at the Giro and I don't think he has enough time to get as fit as CE and BW.

 

[Crackle]

Hesjedal too.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Hesjedal too.

Hesjedal is very like Wiggins in style but not as good and with a much less strong team. I like him a lot, but I really don't think he'll be a top contender at the Tour this year.

 

[Dan_h]

If Schleck is out who on earth is going to come second this year????

 

[smutchin]

Schleck rarely looks in anything like peak form before the start of the Tour. Although I've been quite rude about some of his performances so far this year, I'm genuinely sorry that he won't be there. The race will be poorer without him. The fewer real attacking climbers there are, the easier it will be for Sky to control the race, and much as I'd like to see Brad win, I want it to at least be a proper contest. I hope Samuel Sanchez is fully fit for the same reason.

As well as the names FM mentions, I see Denis Menchov has been talking himself up a bit. He'll have to improve on his showing in the Dauphine but he wasn't looking too far off the pace then.

Even if Hesjedal turns up for the Tour, will he have enough left in the tank after the Giro? Sounds highly unlikely to me.

d.

 

[raindog]

Even if Hesjedal turns up for the Tour, will he have enough left in the tank after the Giro? Sounds highly unlikely to me.

Well, he said he'd definitely be riding and giving it 100%, not that that means he could win, but I think he can be a serious contender.

One positive from this is that Andy and Berto should be the main course at the Vuelta with Cobo and Froome as a sort of side salad.