Andy Schleck

Andy Schleck

Schleck at the 2011 Tour de France
Personal information
Full name	Andy Raymond Schleck
Born	(1985-06-10) June 10, 1985 (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 General Classification (2010) Young rider classification (2008, 2009, 2010) 3 individual stages Giro d'Italia Young rider classification (2007) Stage races Flèche du Sud (2004) Single-day races and classics 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 has been the runner-up at the Tour de France three times - in 2009, 2010 and 2011, but was later promoted to 2010 champion after Alberto Contador was found guilty of doping. 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.

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]

Career

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).

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]

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.

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]

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.

Equipment

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

Notable results

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

References

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External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Andy Schleck

• Andy Schleck Official Site
• Fanclub Fränk & Andy Schleck a.s.b.l.
• The official site of RadioShack-Nissan-Trek
• Andy Schleck on Twitter
• Andy Schleck profile at Cycling Archives

v t e Winners of the general classification in the Tour de France 1903–1919 1903 Maurice Garin 1904 Henri Cornet 1905 Louis Trousselier 1906 René Pottier 1907–1908 Lucien Petit-Breton 1909 François Faber 1910 Octave Lapize 1911 Gustave Garrigou 1912 Odile Defraye 1913–14 Philippe Thys 1915–18 World War I 1919 Firmin Lambot 1920–1939 1920 Philippe Thys 1921 Léon Scieur 1922 Firmin Lambot 1923 Henri Pélissier 1924–25 Ottavio Bottecchia 1926 Lucien Buysse 1927–28 Nicolas Frantz 1929 Maurice De Waele 1930 André Leducq 1931 Antonin Magne 1932 André Leducq 1933 Georges Speicher 1934 Antonin Magne 1935 Romain Maes 1936 Sylvère Maes 1937 Roger Lapébie 1938 Gino Bartali 1939 Sylvère Maes 1940–1959 1940–46 World War II 1947 Jean Robic 1948 Gino Bartali 1949 Fausto Coppi 1950 Ferdinand Kübler 1951 Hugo Koblet 1952 Fausto Coppi 1953–55 Louison Bobet 1956 Roger Walkowiak 1957 Jacques Anquetil 1958 Charly Gaul 1959 Federico Bahamontes 1960–1979 1960 Gastone Nencini 1961–64 Jacques Anquetil 1965 Felice Gimondi 1966 Lucien Aimar 1967 Roger Pingeon 1968 Jan Janssen 1969–72 Eddy Merckx 1973 Luis Ocaña 1974 Eddy Merckx 1975 Bernard Thévenet 1976 Lucien Van Impe 1977 Bernard Thévenet 1978–79 Bernard Hinault 1980–1999 1980 Joop Zoetemelk 1981–82 Bernard Hinault 1983–84 Laurent Fignon 1985 Bernard Hinault 1986 Greg LeMond 1987 Stephen Roche 1988 Pedro Delgado 1989–90 Greg LeMond 1991–95 Miguel Indurain 1996 Bjarne Riis 1997 Jan Ullrich 1998 Marco Pantani 1999–... Lance Armstrong 2000–present ...–2005 Lance Armstrong 2006 Óscar Pereiro 2007 Alberto Contador 2008 Carlos Sastre 2009 Alberto Contador 2010 Andy Schleck 2011 Cadel Evans

v t e Tour de France young rider classification winners 1975 Francesco Moser 1976 Enrique Martínez Heredia 1977 Dietrich Thurau 1978 Henk Lubberding 1979 Jean-René Bernaudeau 1980 Johan van der Velde 1981 Peter Winnen 1982 Phil Anderson 1983 Laurent Fignon 1984 Greg LeMond 1985 Fabio Parra 1986 Andrew Hampsten 1987 Raúl Alcalá 1988 Erik Breukink 1989 Fabrice Philipot 1990 Gilles Delion 1991 Álvaro Mejía 1992 Eddy Bouwmans 1993 Antonio Martín 1994–1995 Marco Pantani 1996–1998 Jan Ullrich 1999 Benoît Salmon 2000 Francisco Mancebo 2001 Óscar Sevilla 2002 Ivan Basso 2003 Denis Menchov 2004 Vladimir Karpets 2005 Yaroslav Popovych 2006 Damiano Cunego 2007 Alberto Contador 2008–2010 Andy Schleck 2011 Pierre Rolland

v t e Giro d'Italia Winners of the young rider classification in the Giro d'Italia 1976 Alfio Vandi 1977 Mario Beccia 1978 Roberto Visentini 1979 Silvano Contini 1980 Tommy Prim 1981 Giuseppe Faraca 1982 Marco Groppo 1983 Franco Chioccioli 1984 Charly Mottet 1985 Alberto Volpi 1986 Marco Giovannetti 1987 Roberto Conti 1988 Stefano Tomasini 1989–90: Vladimir Poulnikov 1991 Massimiliano Lelli 1992–93: Pavel Tonkov 1994 Eugeni Berzin Was not awarded from 95–06 2007 Andy Schleck 2008 Riccardo Riccò 2009 Kevin Seeldraeyers 2010 Richie Porte 2011 Roman Kreuziger 2012 Rigoberto Urán