Frank Schleck...

fredmac

Meaning......?

B3rnieMac

Meaning he didn't stand on the podium, and has said himself he doesn't consider himself the winner.

cycling5280

mroli wrote:

Some people on here write as if riding a bike is not seriously hard work. Yeah, we would love to do what they are doing, but its easy for us to say that, sat in our beige offices on our padded chairs. These guys work fricking hard at doing what they do, suffering daily, pushing their bodies to the limit to make their money. Phinney (I think) tweeted that he had spent something like 40.5 hours in the saddle in a week - and very little of that is spent with his head in the air looking at the scenery.

Just doing it to pay bills? I think it is far easier to sit in an office than be a pro bike rider, potentially putting your life/health on the line everytime you ride. The Schlecks are well paid because Andy has won the TdF, won the white jersey at the TdF 3 years in a row and at the Giro too, won LBL, Frank has top 5'd at the TdF, won Criterium, Tour de Suisse and Amstel Gold. These are good, good riders (Andy "lost" (since been awarded) a Tour to Contador at the top of his form by 39 seconds remember and despite dropping 1min 32 on the TT) and you don't get to be good by not putting the work in.

As punters, we only see a microcosm of what the pros do - as someone posted, if I dislocated my shoulder, I wouldn't ride for a month. If it was sheeting it down with rain and freezing cold, I wouldn't go and climb a 18km col followed by a 26km col at my max, having been out and done the same the previous day with another 7 days to come. Are the Schlecks whingers? I don't know - there isn't a story in saying "F Schleck said he had a nice day on the bike today and thought everyone rode really well". He is a proven GT rider, who came into the Giro at short notice, didn't ride terribly by any means and appears to be having problems with his manager.

They are not my favourite riders, but to call them "wusses", "moaners", "cannon fodder", "tactically inept", is in my imho wide of the mark.

Joe Lindsey from bicycling magazine says it best, Schleck is easy to like and hard to root for.

mroli

TBH and at the risk of upsetting FrenchFighter here, I was rooting for Schleck in 2010. For me, there is something far more "glorious" at winning the Tour in the Alps or Pyrenees than there is on a 40km time trial.

To try and placate FF - that Contador/Schleck battle was fantastic - the sort of thing that makes bike racing. The previous year watching Wiggins trying to hold on in the mountains and minimise his losses was so enthralling that it got my wife hooked on cycling. If I'd tried to do the same on stage after stage of TTing, I think that I would struggle...