Andy Schleck reported to be out of Tour de France

Andy Schleck (RadioShack-Nissan) is said to have been more seriously injured in the Critérium du Dauphiné crash than previously thought, and will not be able to ride the Tour de France, according to Luxembourg websites.

Examinations have shown that he fractured his pelvis and will be out for six weeks, tageblatt.lu reported. According to rtl.lu, he fractured a vertaebra which is part of the pelvis.

His father Johnny Schleck has confirmed to RTL that Andy Schleck will not ride the Tour, Ekstrabladet.dk reported. Wort.lu says a member of the riders "inner circle" conrirmed the news to them.

Cyclingnews tried to call Schleck for comment, but he did not respond. RadioShack-Nissan has called a press conference for Wednesday afternoon.

He was the victim of a crash in the Dauphine's time trial, ridden in heavy winds. Rounding a sharp right hand bend 12 kilometres into the stage, a sudden gust caught his rear disc wheel, and Schleck hit the ground.

A day later Schleck declared that while he was sore, he had no intentions of leaving the race. “I’ve abandoned too many times this year already,” he said. The pain proved to be too much, though, and he dropped out during the sixth stage.

Timeline of a troubled season:

December 2011: Andy Schleck attends first training camp with the merged RadioShack-Nissan team in Calpe, Spain, which is now under the management of Johan Bruyneel. Schleck looks ahead to making changes in preparation ahead of the Tour de France under Bruyneel’s stewardship.

January 6, 2012: The new RadioShack-Nissan line-up is presented in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg. Schleck distances himself from the possibility of riding the Giro d’Italia.

January: Schleck trains in Mallorca with RadioShack-Nissan team.

February 5: Schleck makes seasonal debut at Trofeo Palma, finishing 97th.

February 6: Schleck inherits 2010 Tour de France title after Alberto Contador loses CAS case.

February 14-19: Schleck finishes Tour of Oman in 32nd place, 4:59 down on winner Peter Velits (Omega Pharma-QuickStep). His stand-out display is impromptu press conference on car deck of passenger ferry during rough sea crossing to start of stage two, where he speaks about Contador case and his aims for the season.

March 4: Schleck finishes 142nd in opening time trial at Paris-Nice, claiming the test was “too short and too, too early.”

March 6: Illness forces Schleck out of Paris-Nice ahead of stage 3.

March 21: Along with Ivan Basso and Bradley Wiggins, Schleck is just one of many non-finishers on the snow-shortened stage 3 of the Volta a Catalunya.

April 3-6: Schleck completes the Circuit de la Sarthe in 22nd place and declares that his morale has been boosted after an unfortunate start to campaign.

April 15: Schleck finishes Amstel Gold Race in 91st place after working for his brother Fränk.

April 18: Schleck attacks briefly at Flèche Wallonne ahead of second ascension of Mur de Huy “to make the race hard.” He finishes in 81st place.

April 20: On the eve of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, it emerges that Schleck’s long-time confidant Kim Andersen will not be among RadioShack-Nissan’s directeurs sportifs for the Tour de France. Schleck says that he will still speak to the Dane by telephone “three times a day” in July.

April 21: Schleck finishes Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 50th place, 5:39 down on winner Maxim Iglinskiy.

April 24: RadioShack-Nissan manager Johan Bruyneel decries his team’s lack of results in the classics. “We cannot always find excuses,” says Schleck.

May: Schleck spends three days in a clinic in Basel, Switzerland to be treated for knee problems, a revelation which only emerges in June. He also trains at altitude at Sierra Nevada and reconnoitres Tour de France stages in the Vosges, Jura and Alps, but does not ride the Tour of California.

May 20: The tensions in the relationship between the Schleck brothers and Bruyneel enter public domain when Fränk abandons Giro d’Italia to the chagrin of his manager.

May 29: Schleck is presented with his winner’s jersey from the 2010 Tour de France in a ceremony in his hometown of Mondorf, Luxembourg. “It’s nice to accept this jersey, but for me it doesn’t change anything – it’s not like a win. It’s not the same sensation as climbing on the podium,” says Schleck.

June 3: As the Critérium du Dauphiné gets underway, Schleck expresses his unhappiness at comments from Bruyneel to the media in the wake of Fränk’s Giro abandon. “Personally, if I was a manager I wouldn't try to solve problems with my riders through the press," Schleck tells Het Nieuwsblad. "I would discuss them internally. Maybe Bruyneel was being rushed by the team sponsors, who might be getting impatient."

June 4: In the finale of the Dauphiné's opening road stage, Schleck is dropped on the third category Côte de la Sizeranne and rolls into Saint-Vallier over three minutes down. He concedes more ground the following day.

June 7: Schleck falls heavily 10 kilometres into the Dauphiné’s long time trial after his disc wheel was caught in the wind. He remounts to ride the remaining 42km to the finish and states his determination to complete the race and test his form on the Col de Joux-Plane.

June 8: After conceding another 14 minutes on the road to Rumilly, Schleck insists that he has “abandoned enough times already this year.”

June 9: Still suffering from the injuries sustained in his time trial crash, Schleck abandons early on the Dauphiné’s penultimate stage.

June 13: RadioShack-Nissan call a press conference in Luxembourg amid reports that Schleck will not take part in the Tour de France.

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