Andy Schleck hotly hoped to eventually find his climbing legs while contesting one of his very favourite races, Liege-Bastogne-Liege last Sunday. However, instead of coming even close to repeating his impressive victory in the 2009 edition of La Doyenne, a knee pain forced the 28-year old Luxembourger out of the hilly monument and Tour de Romandie.

With his current contract expiring by the end of 2014 season, Schleck is aware of a time pressure as his splendid achievements posted several seasons ago, including three Tour de France podium finishes, are no longer an argument in such discussion. Since then, the 28-year old Trek Factory Racing rider hardly resembled a shadow of his former self and hoped for a fairly successful Ardennes campaign before sitting by the table to discuss his future in the professional peloton.

However, reality once again turned out to be brutal for younger of the Schleck brothers, and as a result Andy didn’t manage to finish any of the Ardennes hilly events, crashing out of the opening Amstel Gold Race and suffering from a knee pain since then.

Despite the injury, Schleck insisted on participating in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege 100th edition with a hope to overcome a pain and finally find his climbing legs on the route that once suited him perfectly – the 28 year old Luxembourger won La Doyenne in 2009 following an impressive solo attack, but instead had to swallow a disappointment after being forced out of the one-day monument as well as Tour de Romandie kicking off tomorrow.

"Ask me how my week was because it was just shit," Schleck told Cyclingnews at the finish of Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday.

"I crashed in Amstel and since them I've constantly had pain in my knee."

"I had a scan and they told me to rest but can't really rest because I was really motivated for today. I was supposed to do Romandie but about half an hour ago we decided that it makes no sense. I need to stop now for four or five days and then I hope I feel good."

Before the Ardennes finale kicked off, the 28-year old rider claimed he is not ready to hang up his wheels just yet and will do everything to stay in the professional peloton.

"I need to start to training hard and well because I know this is shit," he said.

"I know that I need to prove something to the team because who would send someone to the Tour who rides a bike like I do at the moment? No one, and no one will want to ride for me so I want to show something in Suisse. I know that. I want to."

With a pressure for at least some consistency shown in race results and a string of “did not finishes” recorded instead so far this year, Schleck certainly has to quickly reassess his season programme and goals.

Forced out of the Tour de Romandie, Schleck is expected to line up at the Tour of Luxembourg before heading to the Tour de Suisse in June.

"My form is not so bad. My form is good and I insist on that. I was training hard and was doing five hours behind the scooter. My form is good. It's just the knee."