After a thrilling time trial from the two best riders at the this year's Tour de France, Andy Schleck came up just a little bit short. Schleck lost 31 seconds to an ailing Contador in the final test against the clock in Bordeaux to leave his final deficit to the soon to be three-time Tour de France champion at 39 seconds.
Saxo Bank team manager, Bjarne Riis, was proud of the young Luxembourger: "We had promised to give everything that we could. Andy rode great. We cheered him on, but he just lacked that little bit to finish it off. I think it was a good attempt. It was close."
Saxo Bank had the best time trialist in the business leading the way at the front in Bordeaux in Fabian Cancellara. Cancellara's split times were second to none, but unfortunately, his splits would be of little use to the Tour's best young rider: the wind shifted in a big way, and the speeds of the best placed on GC plummeted with it.
"We were close. We started quietly without forcing it, and the times were fine. We could see that the wind had changed greatly and that he could not keep time with Fabian, who we had all of the splits for."
Not being able to use Cancellara's splits was certainly a small disappointment, but the constant time checks between Schleck and Contador turned out to be more than enough.
"We continued to make time on Contador though, and at one point, we were crazy close to the yellow jersey. It gave us such motivation."
The two second gap to yellow at one stage in the time trial made for beautiful theater, but Schleck couldn't keep the pressure on. As we could all only imagine, Riis did everything he could to cajole his young protege to go faster.
The former Tour de France winner smiled broadly and shrugged his shoulders as he described the emotions in the car: "Unfortunately, it wasn't to be, but it was a good try. I cried and I screamed. There was nothing else to do. He did everything perfectly. It was the time trial of his life so far. I think it was fantastic."