Having endured a disappointing start to the race, Andy Schleck's legs have started to come around in the Tour de Suisse. Yesterday, the Radioshack rider even considered taking part in the uphill sprints and now aims to show something in Friday's mountain stage.

Andy Schleck has had a troublesome time ever since he broke his pelvis in last year's Criterium du Dauphiné but the 2010 Tour de France winner is still hopeful that he will be at his best in the world's biggest bike race which starts later this month. Having struggled to even finish a race in the early season, he showed improvement in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Tour of California and lined up in his final preparation race, the Tour de Suisse, with high ambitions.

Usually, he is not at his best in the  Swiss race but he admitted to newspaper Le Quotidien that he would like to break with tradition this year to get a confidence boost prior to the Tour. However, his GC hopes were dashed in the first two mountain stages with the Luxembourger losing more than 20 minutes.

Since then he has kept calm in the peloton in a couple of easier stages for the sprinters and now his legs have finally started to come around. Yesterday's sprint had a light 4% incline in the final 500m, and Schleck even considered mixing it up with the sprinters.

“I felt ok today;" he said. "I had to chase back for a few kilometers but was able to come back and just sit in the wheels. I had a moment where I thought maybe the uphill sprint could be for me, but that wasn’t the case.  It’s still a sprint even when it’s uphill for only 200 meters and I’m not a sprinter. But I am feeling better and better every day. We will try something in the upcoming stages in the mountains.”

Schleck will get an opportunity to show off his climbing legs tomorrow when the riders will tackle the race's queen stage to La Punt.

Yesterday Schleck was the team's highest finisher in 29th but the star rider of the day was certainly classics specialist Stijn Devolder. The Belgian joined the early 4-man break which never got much of an advantage and was caught with 23km to go.

“It was a nice day but the group didn’t give us much more than two minutes so it’s hard to stay in the front," he explained. "But we tried and that’s important. Yesterday Jens (Voigt, ed.) almost brought it home and we’ll try again tomorrow. There were so many attacks right from the start and we had guys in all of them. The cooperation between the four of us was good but we had a clear understanding how things would be since we were never more than three minutes."

"I dropped behind at one moment because I heard cars and thought the peloton had caught us. (Fellow escapee Serge, ed.) Pauwels attacked then and I saw we still had some time so I continued on but at some point you have to save your legs for another day. We will try again.”

Today's stage could be one for a breakaway as two climbs inside the final 25km could trouble the sprinters. With Maxime Monfort being the best rider in 20th, the team's best chance of success will come in stages and so we should see the Luxembourg team on the attack today.

Starting at 16.55, you can follow today's stage on CyclingQuotes.com/live.