Chinese whisper fuelled media frenzy over selected part of Riis’ statement, but will they race together again
“Disappointed” is how Saxo Bank manager Bjarne Riis described himself about the decision of Andy Schleck and Stuart O’Grady to sneak out for a crafty beer the night before stage 10 of the Vuelta. In truth though, Bjarne has probably used that word, and stronger ones besides, to describe Schleck and his brother Fränk’s actions since they announced that they were leaving the team on July 30th.
The Schleck boys have been with the Danish team since the beginning of their careers; Fränk joined the team in 2002 having ridden for third division DeNardi in 2000 and stagiered with Festina in 2001; Andy has been there since September 2004 and has been nowhere else.
Not only are the two brothers leaving Riis’ team, but they’re also taking many of his best riders with them. O’Grady, Jens Voigt and Danish prodigy Jakob Fuglsang are three of the big names leaving Saxo Bank bound for the “Luxembourg Project”. Not only that, but the quitting bug seems to have passed through the team, with Matti Breschel off to Rabobank and Fabian Cancellara making noises about heading elsewhere.
Riis has replaced the Schlecks with Tour winner Alberto Contador, but rather than the seamless replacement of one captain with another, the Dane is now charged with an almost complete rebuild.
And now this…
So, what exactly did happen? And who cares when we can speculate?
Exactly what happened to have caused Riis to send home two of his best riders is not exactly clear. With the Internet being what it is though, four little words that the Dane said after the stage have been seized upon by the forum- and blogo-spheres; not to mention some respected pundits.
“It doesn’t matter if it was one drink or ten,” Riis told the media after today’s stage, “or if he was out until five in the morning and that’s between us anyway, rules are made to be kept. I’m not here to give any explanations or further details. What actually happened will stay between us.”
Two pretty long sentences there, but the only part anyone seemed to hear was “five in the morning”; nobody seemed to notice the bit where he said: “or if he was out until.”
So, according to those four words, and ignoring the rest of the statement, Andy Schleck was out until 5am the night before a Vuelta stage! I’m not surprised Riis sent him home!
And wasn’t there something there about him having ten drinks? Jeez, he had ten drinks and then stayed out ‘til five! Fire him, no shoot him, on the spot Bjarne.
Hmm, what Riis actually said there was “mind your own business”, but nobody heard him.
Saturday, er Monday Night Fever?
Michael Blaudzun, a Danish rider who rode with Riis’ team until 2008, is one who only heard the 5am bit. “It is not normal to go out to get a drink,” he told Danish TV station TV2. “It will be at most for a glass of wine for dinner, and then it's just upstairs to bed, because it is hard to ride a stage race three weeks in a row. One cannot also play disco kings.”
“There is a difference between going out and getting a single beer or going to discotheques and go home at five o'clock in the morning in a stage race,” he added. “If the latter is the case, then it is in my world a catastrophic thing to happen.”
They went to a disco???? This gets bigger! Actually his use of the word “if” in there kind of backtracks a bit from the “Saturday Night Fever” image, but I don’t suppose many heard him say that.
Actually that’s a bit of a shame because I have Footloose on the TV as I write this and it would be so good to cast John Lithgow in the part of Bjarne Riis; and if you really squint Andy Schleck looks a lot like Kevin Bacon…. Let’s hear it for the boy.
"Andy has acted disrespectfully to both his brother Fränk and the team as a whole,“ Danish former rider Rolf Sorenson told Politiken, in a rather more measured way. "Andy has done nothing since the Tour de France, which is certainly not a way to be prepared for such a demanding event as the Vuelta
"I hope for Andy that he has learned a lesson here,” he added, “because if he continues in this way, it could ruin his career.”
Where do they go from here?
Aside from the frenzy over Schleck and O’Grady apparently dancing the night away in a beer-fuelled haze, this does mark a definite turning point in the relationship between Riis and his stars, in public at least. Although Riis is known as a disciplinarian, one does have to wonder if he would have reacted so harshly if the Schlecks were staying with the team next year.
Conversely though, you have to question whether the riders would have had the guts to go out for a drink if they were staying with Riis in 2011.
While Schleck was contrite about his actions, he was also critical of the previously unquestionable Riis, accusing the Dane of overreaction.
“I acknowledge that I have broken one of team rules by going out to get a drink after dinner,” he told TV2 via SMS, “and so Bjarne decided to send me and Stuart O'Grady home.
“I am responsible for my actions, and even though I think it's too hard a decision, I respect that Bjarne is boss and that he is forced to do what he feels best,” he continued. “I was coming back into form, and I would really like to have been in the Vuelta in order to help Frank and the rest of Team Saxo Bank.”
Not only has Riis punished O’Grady and Schleck junior, he also penalises Schleck senior and the other six riders on the team who will now have to do the work of eight.
Andy was forced to try to win the Tour without Fränk, and now it seems that Fränk will have to try to win the Vuelta without Andy.
Potentially, this could be the last time that Andy Schleck, O’Grady and Riis are on the same team together. While Schleck has counted himself out of the World Championships because he wanted to have a serious effort at the Giro di Lombardia; deprived of two weeks of racing mileage, and probably quite a bit of motivation, it’s easy to see this forgotten.
For such a great relationship to end on such a sour note would be a sad thing indeed.