HIGHS & LOWS

Andy Schleck revisits the rollercoaster of 2010: the booze, the boos and that mechanical

-  Chris Marshall-Bell

It's a simple question: what did Andy Schleck want out of the 2010 Vuelta a España, the race he was sent home from after being seen out in a bar one evening? "Well, obviously a good night," he smiles, trying to restrain a laugh. "We went out - it's quite clear." How many beers did they have? "I stopped counting after two," he chuckles.

Schleck, who just weeks earlier had finished second at the Tour de France, was sent home from the race by his Saxo Bank team boss Bjarne Riis, alongside his right-hand man, Stuart O'Grady.

"We had a rest day, so eight riders who had agreed to sign for Leopard-Trek [in 2011] arranged to go out," Schleck resumes the story. "It was a nice summer's evening and we sat on a terrace. You have a cerveza with some jamón, and then you say, 'Ah, f**k it, let's go there.' You meet more people, more riders, some journalists, and it was a fun night out. We didn't party until 5am, but we went out, had a little buzz.

"It was a bulls**t f**k up by Bjarne, and he says it was one of the biggest mistakes he made. Of course, I regret it because of the outcome and we didn't follow the rules, but we cannot always follow the rules 365 days a year. I didn't want to harm my race with it, but I'd had a tough year."

A hard one that also happened to be his greatest year in spite of cycling's version of Partygate, Schleck later being awarded the 2010 Tour title after the original winner Alberto Contador was stripped of it due to a doping offence. "I still remember how I felt on climbs that year and it was special," the Luxembourger tells Cycling Weekly. "I was a guy who my team wanted to follow-I wasn't just any other rider, but a great leader. The Alps, the Pyrenees, the wind, the heat, the cobbles, the rain, all that combined made it my best year."

All on yellow