Andy Schleck

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Andy Schleck

Andy Schleck, 2007
Personal information
Full name	Andy Raymond Schleck
Date of birth	June 10, 1985 (1985-06-10) (age 24)
Country	Luxembourg
Height	1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight	65 kg (140 lb; 10.2 st)
Team information
Current team	Team Saxo Bank
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Climber
Amateur team(s)1
2004 2004	VC Roubaix Team CSC (stagiaire)
Professional team(s)1
2005–	Team CSC
Major wins
Giro d'Italia, Young rider classification (2007) Tour de France, Young rider classification (2008, 2009) Liège-Bastogne-Liège (2009), National Time Trial Champion (2005), National Road Race Champion (2009),
Infobox last updated on:
February 4, 2009 1 Team names given are those prevailing at time of rider beginning association with that team.

Andy Schleck (born June 10, 1985 in Luxembourg City) is a Luxembourgish professional road bicycle racer who, since 2005, has been riding for Team Saxo Bank in the UCI ProTour series. He is the younger brother of Fränk Schleck, also at Team Saxo Bank. Their father Johny Schleck rode the Tour de France and Vuelta a España between 1965 and 1974.

Contents 1 Early years and family 2 Career 2.1 Amateur 2.2 Professional 3 Notable results 3.1 Grand Tour General Classification results timeline 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Early years and family

Schleck was born in Luxembourg, and is the youngest of Gaby and Johny Schleck's three sons. His brother Fränk Schleck is also a cyclist on Team Saxo Bank, and his brother Steve Schleck is a politician in Luxembourg. Johny is a former professional cyclist for teams like Pelforth and Bic. Johny 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

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] Professional

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]

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 Liege-Bastogne-Liege, 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] Notable results

[edit] Grand Tour General Classification results timeline

Grand Tour	2007	2008	2009
Giro	2
Tour		12	2
Vuelta			WD

WD = withdrew

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Team Saxo Bank profile
• Andy Schleck profile at the Cycling Website

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

v • d • e Riders on Team Saxo Bank Kurt Asle Arvesen | Lars Bak | Jonathan Bellis | Lasse Bøchman | Matti Breschel | Fabian Cancellara | Jakob Fuglsang | Matthew Goss | Juan José Haedo | Frank Høj | Dominic Klemme | Kasper Klostergaard | Alexandr Kolobnev | Karsten Kroon | Gustav Larsson | Marcus Ljungqvist | Anders Lund | Jason McCartney | Michael Mørkøv | Stuart O'Grady | Alex Rasmussen | Andy Schleck | Fränk Schleck | André Steensen | Chris Anker Sørensen | Nicki Sørensen | Jurgen Van Goolen | Jens Voigt | Manager: Bjarne Riis

v • d • e Winners of the young rider classification in the Tour de France 1975 Moser • 1976 Martínez Heredia • 1977 Thurau • 1978 Lubberding • 1979 Bernaudeau • 1980 Van der Velde • 1981 Winnen • 1982 Anderson • 1983 Fignon • 1984 LeMond • 1985 Parra • 1986 Hampsten • 1987 Alcalá • 1988 Breukink • 1989 Philipot • 1990 Delion • 1991 Mejía • 1992 Bouwmans • 1993 Martín • 1994–1995 Pantani • 1996–1998 Ullrich • 1999 Salmon • 2000 Mancebo • 2001 Sevilla • 2002 Basso • 2003 Menchov • 2004 Karpets • 2005 Popovych • 2006 Cunego • 2007 Contador • 2008–2009 A. Schleck

Persondata
NAME	Schleck, Andy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Road bicycle racer
DATE OF BIRTH	1985-06-10
PLACE OF BIRTH	Luxembourg (city), Luxembourg
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH