Talking about Offredo’s fall, Marc Madiot, the directeur sportif of FDJ said, “The accident occurred at the back of the peloton. Offredo had requested for a change of bikes and before I could arrive he failed to see that the peloton separated on either side of the island and he crashed into the warning sign in full speed. Offredo has sustained injuries on his knees, ribs and chin. He stopped like that….”

Taking to his Twitter account, Offredo write, “A second of inattention…Broken fingers/scratched chin/but the morale is especially damaged”

FDJ is however, yet to announce how long Offredo will have to sit out due to the injuries that he suffered.

The other hope for FDJ at the Paris Roubaix, Matthieu Ladagnous suffered a crash with another 60km of the stretch remaining while he was in the front pack. Ladagnous suffered a fall after a rider in front of him fell. The fall injured Ladagnous’ left leg and he had no choice but to abandon the race.

Madiot said that the team could not have imagined such misfortunate. Following the falls, FDJ’s best rider is Johan Le Bon at the 26^th position and 3:17 down on Fabian Cancellara, the winner.

Speaking to the media, Le Bon seemed pragmatic about his and his team’s performance. He said that he finished and this will serve him in the future but the overall situation is pretty sad for the team.

Online video Ranking: 3 / five

Online video Ranking: 4 / five

It was his debut appearance in the Tour Down Under and one thing is for sure, there had been much left to be wished from a cyclist of his prowess. Yet, right now his fans must be going through huge relief that atleast it was just a mechanical snug that pulled the cyclist of the race because the last time he was on a race he had a grim accident that smashed his pelvis and that led to the exhale that he was under all this time before he reached Adelaide for the before mentioned cycling race. Well, rest assured he is all geared up for the next race that he takes part into and by then his bad luck streak would surely have ceased to function.

The younger brother of Franck Schleck who also rides for the same team, that is RadioShack Leopard, happens to be the retroactive winner of the Tour de France of the year 2010 after Contador had been stripped of the title post getting a positive result in the drug  test.

Online video Rating: four / five

Andy Schleck has been the runner up in the Tour de France in the years 2009 and 2011. The 2010 Tour de France title went to him after winner Alberto Contador was stripped of his title due to drug charges. Andy’s older brother Frank Schleck is also a very well known professional cyclist. Their father, Johnny Schleck was also a professional cyclist and he was a part of both Vuelta-a- Espana and the Tour de France in the years of 1965 to 1974.  Their grandfather, Gustave Schleck was also in the same profession in the 1930’s.

Other contenders in the Tour de France, last year’s winner Brad Wiggins and runner-up Chris Froome are also on his list, says Andy Schleck. He says that this year, there are several good competitors in the tournament and he has definitely not written off Richie Porte as a threat. Andy skipped the Tour de France 2012 because of injuries but he all set to come back in the game. Since he has been the runner up in the past few years, the other players also see him as a powerful contender for the title. Andy Schleck says that he is honored and happy to see that the others think of him in that way.

Richie Porte is a part of Team Sky and he is known mostly for his impeccable skill in speeding up. That, Andy says is one of the things which he is looking forward to beat in terms of Richie Porte. In the year 2010, in the Giro d’Italia, Richie Porte came seventh and he has been a major asset for the 2012 winnings of the Team Sky.

Video Rating: 4 / five

There was no looking back after that. He went on to win a stage at 2004 Flèche du Su data young age of 18. By this time his elder brother Frank was already in the Danish Team CSC and the manager of the team asked him to call up Andy Schleck too, and a year later he signed up his first professional contract with CSC, and debuted in a Pro Tour race for the team. Soon after his finishing positions in the races began to rise from young rider classification in 2007 Giro d’Italia, to fourth at the  Giro di Lombardia trying to help his brother who crashed at just six kilometers before the finishing line. He got another fourth position in the Liège–Bastogne–Liège. Andy Schleck made it to the 12^th position at the 2008 Tour de France, and bagged the young rider classification to his name.

2009 marked the greatest victory in his life and the history of Luxembourg because he became the second one after Marcel Ernzer in 1954 to have won the Liège–Bastogne–Liège. 172.5mm crank arms on his bike, are the signatures of Andy Schleck currently.

After being severely injured in the 2012 Criterium du Dauphine Schleck was out of the track for most of the season. It has been reported that he has recovered from his injuries and all eyes were on as he made his comeback at Beijing. Andy’s first race after returning was at the Binche-Tournai-Binche where he couldn’t finish the race but it was evident that he survived his injuries.

Andy Schleck, the 2011 Tour de France runner-up, thought that the Tour of Beijing would be the opening for the 2013 season as he missed most of the important races due to injury. He was supposed to be the most desirable candidate of winning the 2012 Tour de France, especially in the absence of Alberto Contador. But he struggled all through and failed to end it as his brother, Frank, had to ride alone after a span of five years.

Andy told before the start of the Beijing Race that his main ambition was to get back to his normal fitness and form so that he could start 2013 being at his peak. He is focusing on the next season as he mentioned that he is going to Spain in the winter for training.  The doctors told him, after he broke his pelvis, that it might take six weeks to recover but when he went to Switzerland after six weeks for training he felt that the pain was there again. It restricted him again from competing in the events.

Schleck’s utmost desire is to win the overall no. 1 position in the Tour de France and it’s quite inevitable that he will give his best shot to achieve the dream in 2013.

Video Score: 4 / five