By Gregor Brown
"Going into the race I did not know what to expect. I know I am not bad on technical roads because I do a lot of mountain biking," he told Cyclingnews.
Schleck's team won the two previous editions with Alexandr Kolobnev and Fabian Cancellara and this year it was the 23-year-old rider, who lead the Danish team. He battled with Daniele Bennati (Liquigas), Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Slipstream) and Giovanni Visconti (ISD), but could not hold off the group that included eventual winner Thomas Lövkvist (Columbia-Highroad).
"I can see my form is coming on. If I do well at Tirreno-Adriatico and then Milano-Sanremo, I think I will be in good shape for the classics in April."
Schleck has ruled himself out of the overall classification in this week's Tirreno-Adriatico, March 11 to 17. He believes he is off the form he will need to have for his objectives in the Ardennes Classics at the end of April: Amstel Gold, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
"I need more races and kilometres. I will try to do a good time trial and then we will see. I think a guy like Lövkvist can do well in the hard time trial and then in the overall."
