Andy Schleck vowed to exact revenge on Alberto Contador after finishing behind the defending champion following a mechanical problem in Monday’s 15th stage.
The Saxo Bank rider started the day with the race leader’s yellow jersey but his chain jumped off shortly after he launched an attack near the end of the 19.3km ascent to the Port de Bales.
He was passed by Contador, who eventually gained 39 seconds after riding flat out with fellow Spaniard Samuel Sanchez and Russian Denis Menchov to take the yellow jersey by eight seconds.
PHOTO: AFP
The Luxembourg rider said he felt Contador and the other riders should have waited.
“I was feeling very good and I had a mechanical problem, I lost time, it happens, I won’t cry, I lost the jersey but it’s not over,” Schleck told reporters. “My stomach is full of anger and I will take my revenge.
“It’s not really nice but what can I say,” added Schleck, who said Contador, Menchov and Sanchez would not win the “fair play prize” for their move.
Contador, who waited for Schleck when he crashed in the second stage to Spa, dismissed the criticism.
“Some people understand and some people don’t. I knew there would be a controversy,” the 27-year-old said after being booed by some of the audience while he was on the podium to take the yellow jersey.
“But I had already attacked when I learnt about the incident. The race was out. We had already stopped in Spa,” Contador said.
“This time, it was impossible to stop the race at that stage. We could not repeat what we did in Spa. I was not alone in the front and nobody stopped,” he said.
Contador said he understood that Schleck was disappointed but felt that the day’s events did not change anything.
“I don’t think the Tour will be won or lost on the 30 seconds I took today,” he said.
However, in a video posted on YouTube, Contador appeared to backtrack, saying: “Maybe I made a mistake. I’m sorry. I don’t like things like what happened today, I’m not like that and I hope the relationship that I have with Andy can go back to being as good as it was before this happened.”
The controversy was top of the Twitter worldwide trending.
“It’s not over, the Tour is just starting, it motivates me for the Tourmalet [tomorrow’s stage with a mountain top finish],” Schleck said. “I don’t think I would have wanted to take the jersey in such fashion.”
Schleck’s Saxo Bank manager Bjarne Riis said: “Fair play or not, it’s hard to tell. He [Contador] waited a bit at the beginning, then, I don’t know. Too bad.”
“At my time, when others had mechanical problems, we would just attack,” said Laurent Fignon, a Tour winner in 1983 and 1984.
“In the heat of the race and in the finale, you can’t say to Contador — ‘hey, wait for Andy,’” said former Belgian professional rider Johan Bruyneel, who groomed Contador to his first two tour triumphs.
“Andy didn’t wait for Contador on the cobblestones either, I guess,” he said.
In the third stage, Schleck took advantage of his brother Frank’s crash to go off in the wheel of teammate Fabian Cancellara and Contador lost more than a minute in the process.
Frenchman Jean-Francois Bernard, third in the 1987 Tour de France, was even harsher.
“I would have given Contador a rollicking if he had waited for Schleck. That’s the race,” said Bernard, a pundit for daily L’Equipe’s Web site.
Jobe Bellingham on Tuesday admitted to having “anxieties” on following in brother Jude’s footsteps after joining Borussia Dortmund in the summer. Jobe Bellingham, 19, is two years younger than Jude Bellingham, who joined Real Madrid in 2023 after three years at Dortmund. A centerpiece of the England national team, Jude Bellingham has emerged as one of the best players in the world in recent seasons. The younger Jobe Bellingham joined Dortmund in June from Sunderland after their promotion to the English Premier League. He admitted he understood what the perception would be ahead of the move to Germany. “It’s something you do think about.
Before Tuesday’s 7-2 win at the Atlanta Braves, Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy suggested “most people couldn’t tell you five players on our team.” A look at the standings would indicate more Brewers players soon will be recognized by more fans. After all, it is difficult to overlook a team that not only continues to extend their lead in the National League Central, but also boasts the best record in the majors. “What we’re doing in here right now is special,” right-handed pitcher Freddy Peralta said after allowing only four hits and one run in five innings, while setting a career high with
A baseball team from New Taipei City won the US Pony Palomino Division World Series yesterday in Laredo, Texas, defeating the US West representative team from Azusa, California, 2-1. Ku-Pao Home Economics and Commercial High School earned the right to represent Taiwan in the Pony Palomino (17 to 18 age group) World Series after winning this year's Wang Chen-chih Cup, a competition named after Taiwanese-Japanese baseball legend Wang Chen-chih (王貞治), also known as Sadaharu Oh. In the championship game against Azusa, Ku-Pao's starting pitcher Luo Yu-yan (羅于晏) was erratic early, giving up two hits in the bottom of the first inning, followed
Taiwanese pitcher Teng Kai-wei took the mound in New York on Saturday as the starting pitcher for the San Francisco Giants in his MLB season debut against the New York Mets, pitching 3.1 innings and allowing five runs. The Taiwanese right-hander struggled early, giving up three runs in the bottom of the first inning, including a three-run homer to Mets slugger Pete Alonso — his 250th career home run. However, Teng was not fazed and soon found his footing, holding the Mets scoreless in the bottom of the second and third innings. Meanwhile, Mets starter Kodai Senga of Japan made a few errors
RSS