Following on from Andy Schleck’s statement this week that he will continue working towards Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Tour de France as goals for 2013, RadioShack Leopard has confirmed to VeloNation that the Luxembourg rider will return to action in this weekend’s Critérium International in Corsica.
The race represents the next stage in his comeback, and will be followed by the Volta al Pais Vasco, which begins on April 1 and runs for six days. He will then do the Ardennes Classics, with the Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège [April 14th, 17th and 21st] all on his programme.
Schleck withdrew from the penultimate stage of Tirreno-Adriatico nine days ago, after which the team said that it had become clear that the issues he was facing was more than simply a lack of condition.
“This is really sad to see,” said a team spokesman then. “Okay, it is an incredibly hard stage, but it is hard for everyone. Physically he is getting better every day, but we really need to focus on the psychological side now.”
Six days ago ASO announced the names of the top riders who would be competing in the Critérium International, listing defending champion Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team), Alberto Contador (Team Saxo Tinkoff), Chris Froome plus Richie Porte (Sky), Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) and Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) as participations.
It also said that Schleck would ride, but his team said at the time that the final decision had not yet been made. Confirmation of that participation comes today, and will give supporters of the rider encouragement in relation to his push to regain top fitness.
“There’s no reason to change his programme, because we believe his build up is going in the right direction,” a team spokesman told VeloNation today. “It’s maybe going slowly, but it is what we believe is best for Andy.”
Schleck said on Monday that he was optimistic and stated he was ‘working hard, harder than before.’