Andy Schleck
 Schleck at the 2011 Tour de France |
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| Personal information | |||
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| Full name | Andy Raymond Schleck | ||
| Born | June 10, 1985 Luxembourg City, Luxembourg |
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| 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) |
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| Professional team(s) | |||
| 2005–2010 2011– |
Team CSC Leopard Trek |
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| Major wins | |||
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| Infobox last updated on 6 February 2012 |
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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'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
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
U-23 National Road Race Champion - 1st U-23 National Time Trial Champion
- 1st
Overall Flèche du Sud - 2005
- 1st National Time Trial Champion
- 2006
- 1st
Mountains classification Tour of Britain - 1st Stage 3 Sachsen Tour
- 1st Stage 5 Sachsen Tour
- 2007
- 2nd Overall Giro d'Italia
- 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 Stage 1 TTT Tour de Pologne
- 2009
- 1st National Road Race Champion
- 1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
- 1st Stage 2 Tour de Luxembourg
- 2nd Overall Tour de France
- 2nd La Flèche Wallonne
- 8th Monte Paschi Eroica
- 10th Amstel Gold Race
- 2010
- 1st National Time Trial Champion
- 1st Overall classification Tour de France
- 1st
Young Rider classification - 1st Stage 8 Tour de France
- 1st Stage 17 Tour de France
- 1st
- 6th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
- 9th La Flèche Wallonne
- 2nd Criterium Chihuahua
- 2011
- 1st
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
Combativity Award Stage 18- Maillot Jaune Stage 19
[edit] Grand Tour General Classification results timeline
| Grand Tour | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Giro |
2 | - | - | - | - |
 Tour |
- | 12 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
 Vuelta |
- | - | WD | WD | - |
WD = withdrew NC = not classified
[edit] References
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This article uses bare URLs for citations. Please consider adding full citations so that the article remains verifiable. Several templates and the Reflinks tool are available to assist in formatting. (Reflinks documentation) (February 2012) |
- ^ 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.
- ^ "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.
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ "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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Contador signs for Saxo Bank team". BBC News. August 3, 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/cycling/8880854.stm.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "leopard.lu". leopard.lu. http://leopard.lu. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "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
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Andy Schleck |
- Andy Schleck Official Site
- Fanclub Fränk & Andy Schleck a.s.b.l.
- The official site of Leopard Trek
- Andy Schleck on Twitter
- Andy Schleck profile at Cycling Archives
| Sporting positions | ||
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| Preceded by Kim Kirchen |
Luxembourgian Sportsman of the Year 2009,2010 |
Succeeded by incumbent |
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