Fränk Schleck climbs to victory in opening stage

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Fränk Schleck played his part in the Leopard Trek team’s day of domination by taking victory at the summit of the of the Col de l’Ospedale climb at Critérium International in Corsica.

The Luxembourg climber set up overall victory by beating Belarus rider Vasili Kiryienka (Movistar) by 16 seconds and also took a four seconds bonus. Third at 28 seconds was Estonia’s Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) and he is perhaps the only other rider likely to threaten the champion of Luxemburg in Sunday’s time trial.

“When I abandoned during Paris-Nice, it didn’t reflect the reality of my condition”, Fränk Schleck said after victoriously crossing the line at the top of the 15km long final climb.

“I had an inflammation after the time trial but I didn’t feel bad before. On the Monday after Paris-Nice, I knew that everything was fine and I had a good training of week with Andy, including a few sessions behind motorbike. We knew that we were ready to fight and we absolutely wanted to win here.”

The pressure had been growing at the Leopard-Trek team as the new team after only securing two wins so far this season. Now Fränk Schleck and Fabian Cancellara have won on the same day.

“This is a nice victory”, Schleck said. “I’m really happy for the team. We chased the breakaway and Jens Voigt attacked before the climb to prepare the terrain for us.”

The early action

Stage one of the Criterium International came alive with a 16-man breakaway. There was no Europcar rider in the move and so it fell to the team in green team to chase them down. In the next 20-man group that went up the road, Garmin-Cervélo was missing, so they then chased. Eventually a group of just six riders went clear after 70 nervous kilometres of racing. In the move were: Cédric Pineau (FDJ), Dimitri Champion (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Renaud Dion (Bretagne-Schuller), Pim Ligthart (Vacansoleil-DCM), Julien Fouchard (Cofidis) and Thomas Bonnin (Skil-Shimano).

When they opened a four-minute lead after 100km, Leopard-Trek took up the chase. Five time winner of the event Voigt then attacked to bridge the gap alone and continued with aggression until the bottom of the final climb.

With 13km to go, Astana climber Rémy Di Gregorio jumped away from the chasing group and passed Voigt. He hoped to repeat the stage win he got two weeks before at Paris-Nice.

“I told him to attack”, Alexandre Vinokourov told Cyclingnews at the finish.

“But it was a bit too far away from the finish. The Schlecks played it well. They are in good form. We’ll see if it’s still the case at the Ardennes classics. As for myself, my level is more or less the same as last year at the same race in the same climb. It took me a bit of time to recover from my crash at Paris-Nice but I’m confident that after the Vuelta a Pais Vasco, I’ll be good for the classics.”

Vinokourov followed the Andy Schleck’s first attack with nine kilometres to go, as Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) was dropped from the main group because of the sudden accelerations. Andy then attacked another time with Taaramae on his wheel. “I was feeling quite good but not well enough to follow the best climbers of the day”, the youngest of the Schlecks told Cyclingnews.

“I accelerated twice in order to prepare Fränk’s attack and when I felt it was the right time, I pointed it out at him and I told him: ‘Go. Go.’ It was clear that they wouldn’t get across to him. He was the strongest today. It’s a well deserved win because it’s been a long day on the bike and the whole team has worked very well.”

Taaramae was the only rider able to follow Schleck, while Kiryienka was the only one able to bridge the gap at the five kilometre to go mark. With 2.2km to go, Schleck then rode away to a solo win.

“He was super strong”, Kiryienka told Cyclingnews. “I climbed at my own rhythm to limit the damage. Tomorrow we have a short time trial. I have a background as a track ride but that was a few years ago. However, I think I have a chance to regain the twenty seconds I’ve lost to Schleck. This is all good for me.”

Fränk Schleck was quietly confident before the time trial. “I’m not saying that I’ve become a specialist but winning this race is feasible”, he said.

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