 Schleck at the2013 Tour de Suisse | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Andy Raymond Schleck |
| Born | (1985-06-10)10 June 1985 (age 40) Luxembourg City,Luxembourg |
| Height | 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)[1] |
| Weight | 68 kg (150 lb; 10 st 10 lb)[1] |
| Team information | |
| Current team | Retired |
| Discipline | Road |
| Role | Rider |
| Rider type | Climber |
| Amateur teams | |
| 2004 | VC Roubaix |
| 2004 | Team CSC(stagiaire) |
| Professional teams | |
| 2005–2010 | Team CSC |
| 2011–2014 | Leopard Trek |
| Major wins | |
Grand Tours
| |
Andy Raymond Schleck (pronounced[ˈɑndiˈʀɑɪ̯montˈʃlæk]; born 10 June 1985) is aLuxembourgish former professionalroad bicycle racer. He won the2010 Tour de France, being awarded it retroactively in February 2012 afterAlberto Contador's hearing at theCourt of Arbitration for Sport.[2] He has also been the runner-up at the Tour twice; in2009 and2011. He is the younger brother ofFränk Schleck, also a professional rider between 2003 and 2016. Their fatherJohny Schleck rode theTour de France andVuelta a España between 1965 and 1974.
Andy Schleck was born inLuxembourg City, Luxembourg, and is the youngest of Gaby and Johny Schleck's three sons. His older brotherFränk Schleck was also a cyclist on Trek Factory Racing, and his oldest brother Steve Schleck is a politician in Luxembourg. Andy's father,Johny Schleck, is a former professional cyclist and rode theTour de France at the service of 1968 winnerJan Janssen and 1973 winnerLuis Ocaña, and also managed to finish in the top 20 twice: 19th in1970 and 20th in1967. He won a stage in the1970 Vuelta a España and the Luxembourg National Championships. Johny's father, Gustav Schleck, also contested events in the 1930s.[3]
Andy Schleck joined the VC Roubaix cycling club in 2004, and caught the attention ofCyrille Guimard, a sports director who became famous as thedirecteur sportif for severalTour de France winners, includingBernard Hinault,Laurent Fignon,Lucien Van Impe and AmericanGreg LeMond. Guimard described Schleck as one of the biggest talents he had seen and compared him to Laurent Fignon.[3][4]
Still an amateur, Schleck won the 2004Flèche du Sud stage race at 18. As the Danish national team were in the race, word spread to theDanishTeam CSC managerBjarne Riis. Riis asked Fränk, already on Team CSC, about his brother, and Andy started as astagiaire for Team CSC on 1 September 2004.[5]
Schleck secured a professional contract withTeam CSC in 2005, and made his debut in a ProTour race at age 19, in the2005 Volta a Catalunya.
.jpg)
He and Fränk shared the 2005 National Championships, Fränk taking theroad race and Andy theindividual time trial. In 2006, Schleck crashed in theGP Cholet and took an eight-week break before returning for theVolta a Catalunya in May. In July, a few days after his brother won theAlpe d'Huez stage of theTour de France, Andy won the major mountain stage in theSachsen Tour, followed by the final stage, finishing 23rd overall.
In 2007, he won theyoung rider classification in the Giro d'Italia and was second in the general classification behindDanilo Di Luca. He finished fourth at theGiro di Lombardia after helping his brother Fränk, who crashed with six kilometres to go.[6]
In 2008, Schleck finished 4th in theLiège–Bastogne–Liège. His success continued in theTour de France, in which he finished 12th overall, winning theyoung rider classification ahead ofRoman Kreuziger and helping CSC win the team classification andCarlos Sastre themaillot jaune.
In 2009 he achieved the biggest victory of his career at that point, when a strong April culminated with an impressive victory inLiège–Bastogne–Liège, as he became the first winner of the race from Luxembourg since Marcel Ernzer in 1954.[7] A few days before he had finished runner-up inLa Flèche Wallonne.
.JPG)
In theTour de France, he finished the race in second place, behindAlberto Contador and ahead ofBradley Wiggins, along with finishing Stage 17 in 3rd place behind his brother Fränk Schleck, who won the stage, and Contador. He again won theyoung rider classification in the process.
In theTour 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 theyoung rider classification for the third time in a row. Schleck was involved in a controversial incident on thePort de Balès during stage 15 while wearing themaillot jaune and attempting to extend his lead. He was riding with incredibly good form and with 24 km to go Schleck attacked at the front of the group of favorites dropping some riders but the main favorites contained this initial attack. With 22 km to go he attacked again and initially there was no response from his rivals but almost immediately his chain fell off.[8] His main rival for the Tour, Alberto Contador, did not stop even though he likely knew that Schleck had a mechanical issue and had notcracked.Samuel Sánchez andDenis Menchov attacked as well leaving Schleck behind as Contador 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. However, some sections of the media and members of the peloton did not have a problem with Contador's attack. The incident also produced the iconic quote "If you draw your sword and you drop it, you die", from Ryder Hesjedal.[9] 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 wasJan Ullrich who won between 1996 and 1998. He also won two mountain stages, and rode in theyellow jersey for six days.
In February 2012 after Contador's CAS hearing Schleck was retroactively awarded the 2010 Title.[10]
On 29 July 2010, Schleck and his brotherFränk announced their departure fromTeam Saxo Bank at the end of 2010. They formed a brand-new Luxembourg-based team with former Saxo Bank directorKim Andersen.[11]Alberto Contador was hired to replace Andy Schleck as part of a two-year contract signed with Team Saxo Bank.[12][13][14] 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 would race under that name.[15][16] The team's name, was later announced byJakob Fuglsang asLeopard Trek.[17]
.jpg)
In April 2011, Schleck finished third inLiège–Bastogne–Liège. He then won the mountains classification of theTour de Suisse. In theTour de France, Schleck had a slow start but came to the mountains 5th overall. Through the Pyrenees Andy moved up to 4th overall. After losing almost 2 minutes on Stage 16, he finally won the mountainous 18th stage of the race on theCol du Galibier with a long solo breakaway ride. The day after, he finished 9th overall in the 19th stage ofAlpe d'Huez to take the yellow jersey fromThomas Voeckler, but he was overtaken byCadel Evans in the penultimate stage of the tour, an individual time trial, placing Schleck in second place going into the final stage in Paris once again. His brother, Frank, also made the podium making them the first siblings ever to both make the podium in Tour history.
For the 2012 season, Leopard Trek merged withTeam RadioShack to createRadioShack–Nissan, withJohan Bruyneel becoming team manager. In May, Schleck was awarded the overall classification win at the2010 Tour de France after original winnerAlberto Contador lost his legal battle relating to a doping offence. The ceremony was held in his home country of Luxembourg.[2] At theCritérium du Dauphiné prologue, Schleck criticized Bruyneel for having spoken critically to the media of both Schleck brothers, saying that those matters should be dealt with internally, not in the media.[18] In the race itself, Schleck had to abandon after losing a significant amount of time on the general classification and crashing heavily on the fourth stageindividual time trial, worsening a knee injury and suffering a fracture of the sacrum.[19] He stated that he still had ample time to prepare adequately for the comingTour de France, as it occurred often in recent years that he did not perform well in the races leading to the Tour.[20] On 13 June Schleck announced that he would not start in the Tour de France because of the injuries sustained at the Critérium du Dauphiné.[21]
In October he attempted a comeback in theTour of Beijing.[22]
Schleck competed in theTour Down Under, but had to withdraw on the final stage due to mechanical issues. He was nearly 40 minutes behind the leader in the general classification, and as such, would have finished last.[23] Finishing 91st at theGran Premio Città di Camaiore in February,[24] Schleck completed his first UCI-categorised race since the2012 Liège–Bastogne–Liège, a little less than a year later.[25] Schleck, however, withdrew again atTirreno–Adriatico, theTour Méditerranéen, and theTour of Oman,[26] but managed to finish 57th at theCritérium International.[27] Following the Critérium International, Schleck was again unable to finish at theAmstel Gold Race,[28] although he later finished 86th atLa Flèche Wallonne,[29] 41st atLiège–Bastogne–Liège,[30] and 25th at theTour of California.[31] Schleck then rode theTour de Suisse in preparation for theTour de France.[32] While only finishing 40th in Switzerland,[33] Schleck rode a season best of 20th at the Tour de France.[34]
Schleck abandoned the2014 Tour de France, suffering with injuries sustained as a result of a crash during stage three.[35]
In October 2014, Schleck announced his retirement, citing a knee injury.[36] In March 2015 Schleck announced plans to open a bike shop and café inItzig, Luxembourg.[37] The shop opened in February 2016, and also includes a small museum with souvenirs from Schleck's racing career.[38]
Schleck used 172.5mmcrank arms on his bike, which were considered small for a man of his height.[39]
Road race, National Junior Road Championships
Mountains classificationRoad raceTime trial
OverallFlèche du SudTime trial Mountains classification
Young rider classification,Tour de FranceRoad race, National Road ChampionshipsTime trial OverallTour de FranceYoung rider classification
Mountains classification,Tour de Suisse after Stage 19
Combativity Award Stage 18| Grand Tour | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Giro d'Italia | — | — | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
 Tour de France | — | — | — | 12 | 2 | 1[a] | 2 | — | 20 | DNF |
 / Vuelta a España | — | — | — | — | DNF | DNF | — | — | — | — |
| Monument | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milan–San Remo | — | — | — | — | 128 | DNF | — | — | — | — |
| Tour of Flanders | Did not contest during his career | |||||||||
| Paris–Roubaix | ||||||||||
| Liège–Bastogne–Liège | — | — | 46 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 50 | 41 | DNF |
| Giro di Lombardia | 63 | — | 4 | — | — | DNF | — | — | DNF | — |
| — | Did not compete |
|---|---|
| DNF | Did not finish |
