Andy Schleck: Yes I miss cycling

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Andy Schleck, who walked away from cycling at the end of the season after permanently damaging his knee, has admitted in an interview with Luxembourg newspaper Le Quotidien that he already misses cycling.

"The doctors told me that I would need a new knee by the time I was 35," Schleck told Le Quotidien during an interview at his home in Mondorf. "It all scared me. That's what I said in my press conference to announce the end of my career. But now I miss it."

With his existing contract at Trek Factory Racing winding down this year, Schleck, 29, found himself without a team for 2015, but any hopes of renewing with the American squad, or finding a new team for that matter, were dashed with his knee failing to recover from what turned out to be a career-ending crash in this year’s Tour de France.

"Yes, I miss it. I won't hide it," Schleck said. "At the moment, Frank is training with the team, which makes it more difficult. But I am very active. I don't just sit on my couch. There is plenty to do in life. For a month, I was down, really down, but I woke up. I'm not working yet, really, but I'm busier than before. I am trying to make a schedule for next year. I am happy and I am super motivated for my next job. But don't ask me what it is, I can't reveal it yet."

Schleck had just returned from the gym, where he was working to stabilize his knee along with strengthening his back and arms. He also told Le Quotidien he has taken up roller-skiing and hopes to eventually get back on the bike. Despite his activities, he said, he has gained four or five kilos.

Schleck also said he was considering writing a book.

"My book will not look like the ones we read sometimes where doping resurfaces in each chapter," he said. "I would just like to share the good times I spent in cycling. I would like to recall the laughs we had with pals Jens (Voigt), Stuart (O'Grady), the whole group. Why mention the bad things in cycling? I think cycling is beautiful. If I do a book, I want it to be that, not doping stories. ... It would be different from all the other former cyclists' books."