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Andy Schleck - Can't slow down - S4 - #88 Time to say goodbye
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| Forever the Best |
Posted on 18-03-2016 14:38
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Go Andy! |
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 18-03-2016 17:19
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Looks like Kwiatkowski is going to be a tough but to crack  |
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 23-03-2016 12:20
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 La Toussuire, 25.7.2018
Hey guys,
this time it´s the penultimate mountain stage shown in my diary for you.
Stage 19: St-Jean-de-Maurienne -> La Toussuire - Les Sybelles
This day was all about defending. And you might know from your own cycling experience that defending can be harder than attacking.Especially if there´s a guy stronger than you. Even more if there a names like Col du Chaussy, Col du Glandon, Col de la Croix de Fair, Col du Mollard and finally La Toussuire waiting for you.
It all went good until the final climb. I felt good, while yellow didn´t look fresh anymore. I had to right some time from the front uphill, but that was okay. But then Wilco happened. He just exploded upfront, so that no one was able to follow him. At least I wasn´t. He could reach every member of the break despite Elissonde, who took the day. But more interestingly he rode both me and Michal off his wheel.
| 1 | Kenny Elissonde | Rusal | 4h17'11 | | 2 | Wilco Kelderman | Team Giant-Alpecin | + 1'13 | | 3 | Fabio Aru | Tinkoff-Saxo | + 1'22 | | 4 | Bart De Clercq | TEAM Touch Africa | s.t. | | 5 | Roman Kreuziger | Sprite | + 1'36 | | 6 | Mikel Landa | Astana Pro Team | s.t. | | 7 | Andy Schleck | Bora - Argon 18 | + 1'51 | | 8 | Thibaut Pinot | Nike | + 2'23 | | 11 | Michał Kwiatkowski | Desigual | + 2'32 |
For us it was all about damage limitation, so I will go into the final stage with a disadvantage of half a minute to Kelderman. Michal and the other guys should be out of the competition.
| 1 | Wilco Kelderman | Team Giant-Alpecin | 74h28'08 | | 2 | Andy Schleck | Bora - Argon 18 | + 29 | | 3 | Michał Kwiatkowski | Desigual | + 47 | | 4 | Thibaut Pinot | Nike | + 2'31 | | 5 | Adam Yates | Bwin | + 4'29 | | 6 | Mikel Landa | Astana Pro Team | + 7'33 | | 7 | Chris Froome | Bwin | + 8'40 | | 8 | Fabio Aru | Tinkoff-Saxo | + 9'04 | | 9 | Louis Meintjes | Tinkoff-Saxo | + 13'53 | | 10 | Lawson Craddock | Etixx - Quick-step | + 15'25 |
So one chance left on the Alpe d´Huez day, and three guys within a minute. It seems unlikely to have a shot on cracking Wilco, but I´ll try my best. Maybe the polka dots on my shoulders will help me to find the missing seconds.
Bis bald, Andy |
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Posted on 22-11-2024 06:16
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 23-03-2016 14:32
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I'm sure Andy will pull back that 29 seconds  |
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 23-03-2016 15:22
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Should be a great stage. Looking forward to it. Go Andy!!
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| Tamijo |
Posted on 23-03-2016 17:56
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Everything turned upside down, but Andy is still very much in it.
NB: Allways like to see Elissonde at the top of the podium. 
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| Forever the Best |
Posted on 23-03-2016 18:02
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Come on!Don't come 2nd again!!! |
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 24-03-2016 18:58
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Somewhere on the climb to Alpe d´Huez, 26.7.2018
Hey guys,
this is me telling you guys from the decisive stage of this years tour. The queen stage. The olympus of Le Tour is on reach on:
Stage 20: Modane > l'Alpe d'Huez
This one will start with a descent to St. Jean de Maurienne, and following that there were Telegraphe, Galibier and finally Alpe d`Huez. We had only 6 guys left, while Konrad was my very own Quintana. He guided me through the race, while Giant held the tempo on a high level. The break upfront was not in their interest, but killing the riders in behind was Quintanas game.
Then suddenly I made my very own party, attacking Giant in a bad moment when Quintana slowed down a bit. 8 kilometers to go, and me against the mountain. Kelderman stayed calm behind Nairo, while I thought now or never, going uphill on full gas.
We will see how this worked out: Tomorrow...
Bis bald, Andy |
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| Forever the Best |
Posted on 24-03-2016 19:01
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Come on! |
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 25-03-2016 04:28
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Your regular daily soap edge-of-the-seat cliffhanger!! Stay ahead please 
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| Tamijo |
Posted on 25-03-2016 06:53
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go go gooo
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 26-03-2016 16:50
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Alpe d´Huez, 26.7.2018
Hey guys,
we continue with the last 8km of the screamer to l'Alpe d'Huez.
Stage 20: Modane > l'Alpe d'Huez
Now it´s just putting the head down and go. Go, go go until nothing is left! But two guys had something against that. Nairo and Wilco. The duo of danger, with the light Colombian riding for the Giro champ. Last year he got beaten by Pinot, this year it was my turn.
Quintana brought them back to 10 seconds, and then it was yellow against polka-dot. Wilco against me. No problem that Hirt was in front, my goals don´t lie on the stage, it´s all or nothing. I pulled out some seconds going deep into the red zone.
But can I hold on or to this? And if I don´t crack, will it be enough? I took one last view over my shoulder before pulling out the phones from my ear and just fought my way up.
Reaching the final few 100 meters I came around the last corner to see the finishing line. There was my first look around the shoulder to see that no one was there.
Did I make it? Was it enough? What I knew was, that Jan Hirt took the day. I was second. I saw Frank near the finishing line running towards me, but I could only jump off my bike and lay down. Staring at the sky I counted the seconds until the massive amount of visitors started screaming again. They were coming.
I kind of lost my feels for the time flying by, so I wasn´t sure what was going on. My bora guys were all around me, handing me out something to drink or just hugging me.
The moment I realized it all was when Wilco came beneath me. Tears in his eyes, but like a fair loser he congratulated me. And then I knew it. It was done.
| 1 | Jan Hirt | Nike | 3h21'02 | | 2 | Andy Schleck | Bora - Argon 18 | + 1'22 | | 3 | Thibaut Pinot | Nike | + 2'30 | | 4 | Wilco Kelderman | Team Giant-Alpecin | s.t. | | 5 | Adam Yates | Bwin | s.t. | | 6 | Fabio Aru | Tinkoff-Saxo | + 2'55 | | 7 | Michał Kwiatkowski | Desigual | + 4'04 | | 8 | Nairo Quintana | Team Giant-Alpecin | s.t. | | 9 | Chris Froome | Bwin | s.t. | | 10 | Alberto Contador | Desigual | s.t. |
Yellow is the sweetest colour to shine in France. And that´s how it was for me from then on. There can´t be anything better than to grab yellow on the final stage before the Champs Elysee on the legendary finish in Alpe d'Huez. And so many people to share this with me. My wife, the children, Frank, my mates in the peloton, my Bora guys.
| 1 | Andy Schleck | Bora - Argon 18 | 77h51'01 | | 2 | Wilco Kelderman | Team Giant-Alpecin | + 39 | | 3 | Michał Kwiatkowski | Desigual | + 3'00 | | 4 | Thibaut Pinot | Nike | + 3'10 | | 5 | Adam Yates | Bwin | + 5'08 | | 6 | Fabio Aru | Tinkoff-Saxo | + 10'08 | | 7 | Chris Froome | Bwin | + 10'53 | | 8 | Mikel Landa | Astana Pro Team | + 11'07 | | 9 | Louis Meintjes | Tinkoff-Saxo | + 17'49 | | 10 | Nairo Quintana | Team Giant-Alpecin | + 18'15 |
For now I´m just out of words. Tomorrow could be the greatest day of my cycling life. It should be.
Bis bald, Andy |
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| DiCyc |
Posted on 26-03-2016 17:55
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YES!!!! 
He did it! |
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| Martii_Scots01 |
Posted on 26-03-2016 19:02
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Welcome to the 2-time Tour winners club Andy!
Bravo Andy, fantastique! Brilliant fighting against all the odds and taking yellow on the last day of actual racing before the parade. |
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 27-03-2016 00:37
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Yay, Andy has the lead |
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 27-03-2016 03:38
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Woohoo!! Brilliant ride from Andy  . The ride into Paris will be sweeeeeet
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| Tamijo |
Posted on 27-03-2016 08:49
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Fantastic !
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| Forever the Best |
Posted on 27-03-2016 15:30
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Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssss |
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 04-04-2016 15:28
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Paris, 27.7.2018
Hey guys,
last stage onto the Champs Elysee is up for grabs.
Stage 21: Sevres > Paris
The final day. Champaign for me was the plan, and before the start I was just excited.
But there was no way of sitting back today. We had horrible winds all the day, so that the bunch really put the hurts on everybody. I had to be attentive all the day to not get caught out on one of the several crosswind positions.
At the end of the day I was able to reach the Champs Elysee together with all the other big guns. Sadly my teammates nearly got burnt all, so that they couldn´t be with me on the final kilometer.
That meant that Zabel and I went onto the cobbled final straight near to the front. To not let any gaps occure I really went for it on the Champs Elysee.
As nobody could do a "van der Breggen" it was kind of a sprint royale, but with more tired legs than normally in Paris. From the backwheel of the man in green I gave it all, so that I finished 8th on the day. Victorious was Marcel Kittel in front of Sebi Lander and Armindo Fonseca.
| 1 | Marcel Kittel | Orica-GreenEDGE | 2h18'32 | | 2 | Sebastian Lander | Bretagne - Séché Environnement | s.t. | | 3 | Armindo Fonseca | Orange | s.t. | | 4 | Fernando Gaviria | TEAM Touch Africa | s.t. | | 5 | Alexander Kristoff | Rusal | s.t. | | 6 | Liam Bertazzo | Lampre-Merida | s.t. | | 7 | Maxime Daniel | Cofidis, Solutions Crédits | s.t. | | 8 | Andy Schleck | Bora - Argon 18 | s.t. | | 9 | John Degenkolb | Etixx - Quick-step | s.t. | | 10 | Moreno Hofland | Team Giant-Alpecin | s.t. |
That meant a save yellow jersey. The first real win of mine on Le Tour. Just incredible. I don´t have the words for it right now.
| 1 | Andy Schleck | Bora - Argon 18 | 80h09'33 | | 2 | Wilco Kelderman | Team Giant-Alpecin | + 39 | | 3 | Michał Kwiatkowski | Desigual | + 3'00 | | 4 | Thibaut Pinot | Nike | + 3'10 | | 5 | Adam Yates | Bwin | + 5'08 | | 6 | Fabio Aru | Tinkoff-Saxo | + 10'08 | | 7 | Chris Froome | Bwin | + 10'53 | | 8 | Mikel Landa | Astana Pro Team | + 11'07 | | 9 | Louis Meintjes | Tinkoff-Saxo | + 17'49 | | 10 | Nairo Quintana | Team Giant-Alpecin | + 18'15 |
Now it was time for celebrating the biggest achievement in my cycling career. I really enjoyed the final podium, just take a look!
The Points Classification was won by Kittel,
| 1 | Marcel Kittel | Orica-GreenEDGE | 324 | | 2 | Sebastian Lander | Bretagne - Séché Environnement | 247 | | 3 | Alexander Kristoff | Rusal | 244 | | 4 | Andy Schleck | Bora - Argon 18 | 239 |
the King of the Mountains was Kelderman.
| 1 | Wilco Kelderman | Team Giant-Alpecin | 169 | | 2 | Andy Schleck | Bora - Argon 18 | 142 | | 3 | Adam Yates | Bwin | 103 |
Team Classification went to Bwin,
| 1 | Bwin | 239h48'01 (1) | | 2 | Tinkoff-Saxo | + 19'24 (2) | | 3 | Nike | + 41'20 (3) | | 11 | Bora - Argon 18 | + 3h00'49 (11) |
and Tiesj Benoot finished in white.
| 1 | Tiesj Benoot | Lotto Soudal | 80h39'39 (1) | | 2 | Eddie Dunbar | Tinkoff-Saxo | 5'33 (2) | | 3 | James Oram | Phonak | 18'59 (3) |
Most aggressive rider was Kenny Elissonde.
With these results now the Tour finished. We´ll speak soon about what´s next, for now it´s just celebration.
Bis bald, Andy |
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| DiCyc |
Posted on 04-04-2016 16:01
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It is a great victory, he did finally win a Tour - officially in Paris |
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