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.

Fränk 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 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.”

“This is a nice victory”, Fränk 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.

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”, Andy Schleck 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.”

Andy finished in 10th place. 01:09 minutes after Fränk.

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

Fränk 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.