While his brother Andy is some way off top form and has a lot of work to do to get into shape, Fränk Schleck showed that he is in strong condition heading towards his biggest target of the year, the Tour de France.
The RadioShack Nissan rider attacked on yesterday’s final climb on stage two of the Tour de Suisse, going clear soon after the start of the ascent of Verbier and eking out a lead of over half a minute. He appeared to mistime his move, however, as he ran out of steam before the top and was caught and passed by Rui Costa (Movistar).
Still, the effort earned him second on the stage, put him right behind Costa in the general classification and shows that he is the stronger of the two Schleck brothers at this point in time.
“The plan was to try to win the stage. I was so hoping I could make it,” he said. “The team was so committed to me all day. I had a good position. Right now I know I should have waited one or two kilometres more to attack but you have half a second to make that decision and I went all in at that point. I felt it was the time.”
Schleck’s performance contrasted with a quieter display in the Giro d’Italia, which he entered after a late call-up to replace an injured Jakob Fuglsang. He crashed on stage eleven of that race and injured his shoulder, continuing on until stage 15 and then pulling out.
This led to criticism from team manager Johan Bruyneel, plus some tense exchanges between them via the press. Schleck said at the time that he did all he could, and was clearly not happy with the questions about his commitment.
He said that yesterday was about proving a point, although he didn’t indicate if he was referring to Bruyneel or the media in doing so. “My form is good; I’m happy about it,” he said. “I think I’m feeling anger too and wanting to show something to silence the critics.
“We’re not finished yet. In a way it’s good that we don’t take the leader’s jersey so we won’t have to control the race and now I’m second in the overall. This gives us a good position with more hard stages coming up.”
The 32 year old Luxembourg rider is eight seconds behind Costa going into today’s stage, a 194.7 kilometre stage from Martigny to Aarberg. He won the Tour de Suisse in 2010, holding off Lance Armstrong in the final time trial. He was seventh in the race last year, then went on to finish a career-best third overall in the Tour de France.