Andy Schleck

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Andy Schleck

Schleck at the 2011 Tour de France
Personal information
Full name Andy Raymond Schleck
Born June 10, 1985 (1985-06-10) (age 26)
Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Height 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight 68 kg (150 lb; 10.7 st)
Team information
Current team RadioShack-Nissan-Trek
Discipline Road
Role Rider
Rider type Climber
Amateur team(s)
2004
2004
VC Roubaix
Team CSC (stagiaire)
Professional team(s)
2005–2010
2011–
Team CSC
Leopard Trek
Major wins
Grand Tours
Tour de France
Jersey yellow.svg General Classification
(2010)
Jersey white.svg Young rider classification
(2008, 2009, 2010)
3 individual stages
Giro d'Italia
Jersey white.svg Young rider classification
(2007)

Stage races

Flèche du Sud (2004)
Tour of Britain (2006)
Tour de Suisse (2011)

Single-day races and classics

U-23 National Road Race Champion (2004)
U-23 National Time Trial Champion (2004)
National Time Trial Champion (2005, 2010)
National Road Race Champion (2009)
Liège–Bastogne–Liège (2009)
Infobox last updated on
6 February 2012

Andy Raymond Schleck (born June 10, 1985) is a Luxembourgish professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTour team RadioShack-Nissan-Trek. He was the winner of the 2010 Tour de France. He is the younger brother of Fränk Schleck, who also rides for RadioShack-Nissan-Trek. Their father Johny Schleck rode the Tour de France and Vuelta a España between 1965 and 1974.

Contents

[edit] Early years and family

Andy Schleck was born in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, and is the youngest of Gaby and Johny Schleck's three sons. His older brother Fränk Schleck is also a cyclist on RadioShack-Nissan-Trek, and his oldest brother Steve Schleck is a politician in Luxembourg. Andy's father, Johny Schleck, is a former professional cyclist and rode the Tour de France at the service of 1968 winner Jan Janssen and 1973 winner Luis Ocaña, and also managed to finish in the top 20 twice: 19th in 1970 and 20th in 1967. He won a stage in the 1970 Vuelta a España and the Luxembourg National Championships. Johny's father, Gustav Schleck, also contested events in the 1930s.[1]

[edit] Career

[edit] Amateur

Andy Schleck joined VC Roubaix cycling club in 2004, and caught the attention of Cyrille Guimard, a sports director who became famous as the directeur sportif for several Tour de France winners, including Bernard Hinault, Laurent Fignon, Lucien Van Impe and American Greg LeMond. Guimard described Schleck as one of the biggest talents he had seen and compared him to Laurent Fignon.[1][2]

Still an amateur, Schleck won the 2004 Flèche du Sud stage race at 18. As the Danish national team were in the race, word spread to the Danish Team CSC manager Bjarne Riis. Riis asked Fränk, already on Team CSC, about his brother, and Andy started as a stagiaire for Team CSC on September 1, 2004.[3] He secured a professional contract with CSC, and made his debut in a ProTour race at age 19 (the 2005 Volta a Catalunya).

[edit] Team CSC/Saxo Bank

He and Fränk shared the 2005 National Championships, Fränk taking the road race and Andy the individual time trial. In 2006, Schleck crashed in the GP Cholet and took an eight-week break before returning for the Volta a Catalunya in May. In July, a few days after his brother won the Alpe d'Huez stage of the Tour de France, Andy won the major mountain stage in the Sachsen Tour, followed by the final stage, finishing 23rd overall.

In the 2007 Giro d'Italia, he won the young rider classification and was second in the general classification after Danilo Di Luca. He finished fourth at the Giro di Lombardia after helping his brother Fränk, who crashed with six kilometres to go.[4]

[edit] 2009

Schleck en route to victory in Liege-Bastogne-Liege

Schleck's success continued in 2008 when he won the young rider classification in the Tour De France,[5] holding off Roman Kreuziger, and helping CSC win the team classification and Carlos Sastre the maillot jaune.

In 2009 he won the biggest victory of his career so far, when a strong April culminated with an impressive victory in Liège–Bastogne–Liège, as he became the first winner of the race from Luxembourg since Marcel Ernzer in 1954.[5] A few days before he had finished runner-up in La Flèche Wallonne.

In the 2009 Tour de France overall classification, he finished the Tour in second place, behind Alberto Contador and ahead of Lance Armstrong, along with finishing Stage 17 in 3rd place behind his brother Fränk Schleck (1) and Alberto Contador (2). He again won the Young Rider Classification in the 2009 Tour de France.

[edit] 2010

Andy Schleck in 2010, wearing the white jersey.

In the 2010 Tour de France, he was much closer to the victory – against Alberto Contador again – but took what was at the time second place (by 39 seconds) and won Young Rider Classification for the third time in a row. Schleck was involved in a controversial incident on the Tour de France: When his chain fell off on a mountain stage,[6] his main rival for the Tour, Alberto Contador, did not stop and thereby took the lead from Schleck. Some sections of the media saw Contador's behaviour as unsporting, and felt he should have allowed Schleck to regain the lost time. Schleck lost 39 seconds on that stage in the mountains, the same number of seconds by which he eventually lost the Tour de France. Schleck was only the second man to ever win the white jersey for best young rider 3 times; the first was Jan Ullrich who won in 1996–98. He also won two mountain stages, and rode in the yellow jersey for six days.

In February 2012 after Contador's CAS hearing Schleck was retroactively awarded the 2010 Title.[7]

[edit] Leopard Trek: 2011–

On July 29, 2010, Schleck and his brother Fränk announced their departure from Team Saxo Bank at the end of 2010. They formed a brand-new Luxembourg-based team with former Saxo Bank director Kim Andersen.[8] Alberto Contador was hired to replace Andy Schleck as part of a two year contract signed with Team Saxo Bank.[9][10][11]

In October 2010, the management of the new Luxembourg team revealed the team's website, labeled Leopard True Racing, leading to speculation that the team will race under that name.[12][13] The team's name, as per Jakob Fuglsang, is simply Leopard Trek.[14]

In July 2011, Andy won the mountainous 18th stage of the Tour de France with a long solo breakaway ride. When interviewed after the stage for Channel 4 television he answered the first question by saying, "No guts, no glory". The day after he finished 9th overall in the 19th stage to take the yellow jersey. However the day after he was overtaken in the time trial penultimate stage 20 of the tour by Cadel Evans placing Schleck in second place going into the final stage in Paris once again.

For the 2012 season, Leopard Trek merged with Team RadioShack to create RadioShack-Nissan-Trek, with Johan Bruyneel becoming team manager.

[edit] Equipment

Andy Schleck uses 172.5mm crank arms on his bike, which are considered small for a man of his height.[15]

[edit] Notable results

2004
1st MaillotLuxemburgo.PNG U-23 National Road Race Champion
1st MaillotLuxemburgo.PNG U-23 National Time Trial Champion
1st Jersey yellow.svg Overall Flèche du Sud
2005
1st MaillotLuxemburgo.PNG National Time Trial Champion
2006
1st Jersey polkadot.svg Mountains classification Tour of Britain
1st Stage 3 Sachsen Tour
1st Stage 5 Sachsen Tour
2007
2nd Overall Giro d'Italia
1st Jersey white.svg Young Rider classification
4th Giro di Lombardia
8th Overall Tour de Romandie
2008
4th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
5th Olympics Men's Road Race
6th Overall, Tour de Suisse
12th Overall, Tour de France
1st Jersey white.svg Young Rider classification
1st Stage 1 TTT Tour de Pologne
2009
1st MaillotLuxemburgo.PNG National Road Race Champion
1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1st Stage 2 Tour de Luxembourg
2nd Overall Tour de France
1st Jersey white.svg Young Rider classification
2nd La Flèche Wallonne
8th Monte Paschi Eroica
10th Amstel Gold Race
2010
1st MaillotLuxemburgo.PNG National Time Trial Champion
1st Jersey yellow.svg Overall classification Tour de France
1st Jersey white.svg Young Rider classification
1st Stage 8 Tour de France
1st Stage 17 Tour de France
6th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
9th La Flèche Wallonne
2nd Criterium Chihuahua
2011
1st Jersey green.svg Mountains classification Tour de Suisse
3rd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
8th 2011 Tour of California
2nd Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 18 Tour de France
Jersey red number.svg Combativity Award Stage 18
Maillot Jaune Jersey yellow.svg Stage 19

[edit] Grand Tour General Classification results timeline

Grand Tour 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Pink jersey Giro 2 - - - -
Yellow jersey Tour - 12 2 1 2
golden jersey Vuelta - - WD WD -

WD = withdrew NC = not classified

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "Giro d'Italia: The rise of another Schleck". cyclingnews.com. June 4, 2007. http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/road/2007/giro07/?id=/features/2007/giro_andy_schleck07. Retrieved February 4, 2009. 
  2. ^ "Schleck Brothers Confirmed For Tour Of Ireland". Irishcycling.com. August 17, 2007. http://www.irishcycling.com/publish/exec/view.cgi?archive=9&num=2602. Retrieved January 26, 2011. 
  3. ^ [1][dead link]
  4. ^ "www.cyclingnews.com presents the 101st Giro di Lombardia". Autobus.cyclingnews.com. 2007-10-20. http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/road/2007/oct07/lombardia07/?id=results. Retrieved 2012-02-23. 
  5. ^ a b "Schleck impresses with Liege win". BBC News. April 26, 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/8019468.stm. Retrieved April 27, 2009. 
  6. ^ "Contador in yellow as Schleck suffers untimely mechanical at the Tour. France’s Voeckler wins the stage.". velonews.com. July 19, 2010. http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/07/news/contador-in-yellow-as-schleck-suffers-untimely-mechanical-at-the-tour-frances-voeckler-wins-the-stage_129933. Retrieved July 28, 2010. 
  7. ^ "CAS Sanction Contador With Two Year Ban In Clenbuterol Case". Cyclingnews.com. http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cas-sanction-contador-with-two-year-ban-in-clenbuterol-case. Retrieved 2012-02-23. 
  8. ^ Devaney, Jason (2011-08-31). "Cycling Road Schleck's confirm departure from Saxo Bank". Universal Sports. http://www.universalsports.com/blogs/blog=shiftinggears/postid=485983.html. Retrieved 2012-02-23. 
  9. ^ "Contador signs for Saxo Bank team". BBC News. August 3, 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/cycling/8880854.stm. 
  10. ^ Richard Moore. "Alberto Contador to leave Astana and replace Andy Schleck at Saxo Bank | Sport". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/aug/03/alberto-contador-saxo-bank. Retrieved 2012-02-23. 
  11. ^ Greg Johnson (September 30, 2010). "Alberto Contador Suspended Over Traces of Clenbuterol From Tour de France Test". Cyclingnews.com. http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/alberto-contador-suspended-over-traces-of-clenbuterol-from-tour-de-france-test. Retrieved January 26, 2011. 
  12. ^ "Could the Luxembourg team of Schleck brothers be named Leopard True Racing?". Velonation.com. http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/6134/Could-the-Luxemburg-team-of-Schleck-brothers-be-named-Leopard-True-Racing.aspx. Retrieved January 26, 2011. 
  13. ^ "leopard.lu". leopard.lu. http://leopard.lu. Retrieved 2012-02-23. 
  14. ^ Daniel Benson (December 13, 2010). "Luxembourg Team To Be Called Team Leopard". Cyclingnews.com. http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/luxembourg-team-to-be-called-team-leopard. Retrieved January 26, 2011. 
  15. ^ "An SRM Power Meter Is Mounted Up With Dura-Ace 7900 Chainrings. Surprisingly Given Andy Schleck's (LEOPARD TREK) Height, The Crankarms Measure Just 172.5mm In Length. Photos". Cyclingnews.com. http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/photos/pro-bike-andy-schlecks-leopard-trek-trek-madone-6-9-ssl/154164. Retrieved January 26, 2011. 

[edit] External links

Sporting positions
Preceded by
Kim Kirchen
Luxembourgian Sportsman of the Year
2009,2010
Succeeded by
incumbent
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