Frank Schleck blames Alex Rasmussen for his poor stage 11 performance at the Giro d’Italia 2012
Frank Schleck is filling in for Jakob Fuglsang at the Giro d’Italia and the Luxembourg professional cyclist is a serious contender for an overall victory at the race.
Frank Schleck was 1 minute and 25 seconds behind the race leader Joaquim Rodriguez after the stage 10 classifications.
He was holding the 13th overall position and was optimistic to cut down on the Spaniard during the coming stages of the event.
Schleck rode brilliantly during the 157 kilometre chase to Sestri Levante, stage 10 of the Giro but could not match the likes of Roberto Ferrari of Team Androni Giocattoli.
The Italian finished the race in a quickest time of 6 hours, 49 minutes and 5 seconds and occupied the top podium spot.
Francesco Chicchi of Team Omega Pharma-Quick Step finished seconds behind and achieved the second position.
Tomas Vaitkus of Team Orica GreenEdge finished third with Mark Cavendish of Team Sky and Manuel Belletti of Team AG2R La Mondiale securing the third, the fourth and the fifth positions in the respective order.
Frank Schleck finished the race at the 95th position and was not happy with his performance at the race.
He blamed that Alex Rasmussen of Team Garmin-Barracuda cost him important minutes during the stage 11 of the event.
Schleck lost 46 seconds during the 243 kilometre race because of the crashed and is now dropped down to the 23rd overall position.
He is now 2 minutes and 11 seconds down on the race leader Joaquim Rodriguez of Team Androni Giocattoli.
Frank noted on the team’s website, “Just before the final lap Alex Rasmussen gave his teammate Christian Vande Velde a big push to launch him upfront”.
“While doing this he was practically going backwards himself and he was like a wall in the middle of the pack. Incredible”.
“I hit him from behind and stood completely still. Then I started chasing like h**l and I made it back to the peloton that had already started the last climb”.
“But then bad luck struck again, because there was another crash and everybody was standing still again," he concluded.
The 32-year-old is now eyeing the coming stages of the race and is hopeful to cut down on the massive 2 minute and 11 seconds lead to challenge the final general classifications.
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