Tour contender will ride Challenge Mallorca and Tour of Oman
After several months away from competition, Andy Schleck will make his season debut in six days’ time on day one of the Challenge Mallorca events.
According to his RadioShack Nissan team, the triple Tour de France runner-up will do at least two of the stages in Mallorca; before then, he is part of a team training camp on the island, using that as a chance to sharpen his form prior to pinning on a number for the first time.
Schleck is happy with how things have gone for him thus far. “I have been doing a lot of kilometres up until now. When I got home after the last camp, I could still do a lot of training, because the weather in Luxembourg was good,” he said. “[It was] cold, but you could still go out and have a good time. Despite a little cold and a sore throat, I could do some good work.
“My condition is ok. I’ve got a good base already. The trainers and myself will now determine what the best preparation is for me. We will be increasing the intensity of my trainings: shorter distance, more intensity.”
Heading to Mallorca prior to the start of racing will reunite him with his team-mates and should guarantee him good weather to carry out those final preparations. He said that he feels differently about such get-togethers than he did in the past. “In my first years as a pro, I didn’t like training camps very much. I was impulsive and only racing counted,” he said. “Now that I’m older, I start to like training camps a lot. They’re good when you want to build up in shape and they’re real fun.”
After competing in Mallorca, Schleck will return to his home in Luxembourg on February 8th. He will leave three or four days after that for the Tour of Oman, which begins on February 14th and runs for five days.
Schleck may find out today if he will be upgraded to winner of the 2010 Tour de France. The Court of Arbitration for Sport is expected to make an announcement relating to the Clenbuterol positive case of Alberto Contador; if the Spaniard is disqualified from the race, Schleck will be deemed the winner.