Andy Schleck

Andy Schleck

Schleck at the 2013 Tour de Suisse
Personal information
Full name Andy Raymond Schleck
Nickname Andy torticolis (Andy Torticollis)[1]
Born (1985-06-10) 10 June 1985
Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Height 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)[2]
Weight 68 kg (150 lb; 10.7 st)[2]
Team information
Current team Retired
Discipline Road
Role Rider
Rider type Climber
Amateur team(s)
2004 VC Roubaix
2004 Team CSC (stagiaire)
Professional team(s)
2005–2010 Team CSC
2011–2014 Leopard Trek
Major wins

Grand Tours

Tour de France
General classification (2010)
Young rider classification (2008, 2009, 2010)
3 individual stages (2010, 2011)
Giro d'Italia
Young rider classification (2007)

One-day races and Classics

National Time Trial Championships (2005, 2010)
National Road Race Championships (2009)
Liège–Bastogne–Liège (2009)
Infobox last updated on
9 October 2014

Andy Raymond Schleck (pronounced [ɑndi ʀɑɪ̯mond ʃlæk]; born 10 June 1985) is a Luxembourgish former professional road bicycle racer. He won the 2010 Tour de France, being awarded it retroactively in February 2012 after Alberto Contador's hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.[3] He has also been the runner-up at the Tour twice; in 2009 and 2011. He is the younger brother of Fränk Schleck, also a professional rider for Trek Factory Racing. 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 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 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.[4]

Career

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.[4][5]

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 1 September 2004.[6] He secured a professional contract with CSC, and made his debut in a ProTour race at age 19 (the 2005 Volta a Catalunya).

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.[7]

In 2008, Schleck finished 4th in the Liège–Bastogne–Liège. His success continued in the 2008 Tour de France, in which he finished 12th overall, winning the young rider classification ahead of Roman Kreuziger and helping CSC win the team classification and Carlos Sastre the maillot jaune.

2009

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.[8] A few days before he had finished runner-up in 2009 La Flèche Wallonne.

Schleck wearing the white jersey at the 2009 Tour de France; he leads Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador during the climb of Mont Ventoux.

In the 2009 Tour de France overall classification, he finished the Tour in second place, behind Alberto Contador and ahead of Bradley Wiggins, 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

Schleck at the 2010 Tour de France; he is wearing the white jersey of the young rider classification leader.

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,[9] 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. Although some sections of the media and members of the peloton didn't have a problem with Contador's attack, and the incident produced this memorable quote "If you draw your sword and you drop it, you die." from Ryder Hesjedal. 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.[10]

On 29 July 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.[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, as per Jakob Fuglsang, is simply Leopard Trek.[17]

2011

Schleck at the 2011 Tour de France

In April 2011, Schleck finished third in Liège–Bastogne–Liège. He then won the mountains classification of the Tour de Suisse. In the Tour 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 Tour de France on the Col du Galibier with a long solo breakaway ride. The day after, he finished 9th overall in the 19th stage of Alpe d'huez to take the yellow jersey from Thomas Voeckler, but he was overtaken by Cadel 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.

2012

For the 2012 season, Leopard Trek merged with Team RadioShack to create RadioShack–Nissan, with Johan Bruyneel becoming team manager. In May, Schleck was awarded the overall classification win at the 2010 Tour de France after original winner Alberto Contador lost his legal battle relating to a doping offence. The ceremony was held in his home country of Luxembourg.[3] At the Critérium 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] On the race itself, Schleck had to abandon after losing a significant amount of time on the Overall Classification and crashing heavily on Stage Four's individual 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 coming Tour de France, as it occurred often in recent years that he didn't perform well in the races leading to the Tour.[20] On 13 June Schleck announced that he would not start in the 2012 Tour de France because of the injuries sustained at the Critérium du Dauphiné.[21]

In October he attempted a comeback in the 2012 Tour of Beijing.[22]

2013

Schleck competed in the Tour 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 the Gran Premio Città di Camaiore in February,[24] Schleck completed his first UCI ProTour race since the 2012 Liège–Bastogne–Liège, a little less than a year later.[25] Schleck, however, withdrew again at Tirreno–Adriatico, the Tour Méditerranéen, and the Tour of Oman,[26] but managed to finish 57th at the Critérium International.[27] Following the Critérium International, Schleck was again unable to finish at the Amstel Gold Race,[28] although he later finished 86th at La Flèche Wallonne,[29] 41st at Liège–Bastogne–Liège,[30] and 25th at the Tour of California.[31] Schleck then rode the Tour de Suisse in preparation for the Tour de France.[32] While only finishing 40th in Switzerland,[33] Schleck rode a season best of 20th at the Tour de France.[34]

Retirement

Schleck abandoned the 2014 Tour de France, suffering with injuries sustained as a result of a crash during stage three.[35] In Luxembourg, October 2014, Schleck announced his retirement, citing a knee injury.[36] In March 2015 Schleck announced plans to open a bike shop and café in Itzig.[37] The shop opened in February 2016, and also includes a small museum with souvenirs from Schleck's racing career.[38]

Equipment

Schleck uses 172.5mm crank arms on his bike, which are considered small for a man of his height.[39]

Career achievements

Major results

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Pink jersey Giro 2
Yellow jersey Tour 12 2 1* 2 20 WD
golden jersey Vuelta WD WD

WD = Withdrew; IP = In Progress; *=awarded after the race by CAS

References

  1. Vergne, Laurent (22 July 2015). "Cannibale, Chéri-pipi, Wookie, Andy torticolis… le Top 20 des surnoms mythiques du cyclisme" [Cannibal, Chéri-pipi, Wookie, Andy Torticollis... the Top 20 mythical nicknames of cycling]. Eurosport (in French). Retrieved 11 April 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Andy Schleck profile".
  3. 1 2 Shane Stokes (29 May 2012). "Andy Schleck awarded yellow jersey for 2010 Tour de France9". Velo Nation. Velo Nation LLC. Retrieved 24 December 2012.
  4. 1 2 "Giro d'Italia: The rise of another Schleck". cyclingnews.com. 4 June 2007. Retrieved 4 February 2009.
  5. "Schleck Brothers Confirmed For Tour Of Ireland". Irishcycling.com. 17 August 2007. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
  6. Andy Schleck: Not Unlike his Brother Fränk, 19 May 2006 Archived October 16, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
  7. "www.cyclingnews.com presents the 101st Giro di Lombardia". Autobus.cyclingnews.com. 2007-10-20. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  8. "Schleck impresses with Liege win". BBC News. 26 April 2009. Archived from the original on April 27, 2009. Retrieved 27 April 2009.
  9. "Contador in yellow as Schleck suffers untimely mechanical at the Tour. France's Voeckler wins the stage.". velonews.com. 19 July 2010. Archived from the original on July 24, 2010. Retrieved 28 July 2010.
  10. "CAS Sanction Contador With Two Year Ban In Clenbuterol Case". Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  11. Devaney, Jason (2011-08-31). "Cycling Road Schleck's confirm departure from Saxo Bank". Universal Sports. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  12. "Contador signs for Saxo Bank team". BBC News. 3 August 2010.
  13. Richard Moore (August 3, 2010). "Alberto Contador to leave Astana and replace Andy Schleck at Saxo Bank | Sport". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  14. Greg Johnson (30 September 2010). "Alberto Contador Suspended Over Traces of Clenbuterol From Tour de France Test". Cyclingnews.com. Archived from the original on February 27, 2011. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
  15. "Could the Luxembourg team of Schleck brothers be named Leopard True Racing?". Velonation.com. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
  16. "leopard.lu". leopard.lu. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  17. Daniel Benson (13 December 2010). "Luxembourg Team To Be Called Team Leopard". Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
  18. "Andy Schleck has a dig at Bruyneel at Dauphiné prologue". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. 3 June 2012. Retrieved 10 June 2012.
  19. "Andy Schleck abandons Criterium du Dauphine". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. 9 June 2012. Retrieved 10 June 2012.
  20. "Andy Schleck: You can do a lot in three weeks". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. 10 June 2012. Retrieved 10 June 2012.
  21. "Andy Scheck with sacral fracture out for Tour de France". radioshacknissantrek.com. 13 June 2012. Retrieved 13 June 2012.
  22. "Despite quitting Tour of Beijing and losing team boss, Andy Schleck happy to be racing". Velonews.competitor.com. 2012-10-13. Retrieved 2013-04-02.
  23. Kogoy, Peter (28 January 2013). "Andy Schleck snubs post-race presentation". The Australian. News Limited. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
  24. RadioShack-Leopard-Trek (28 February 2013). "Gran Premio Città di Camaiore at RadioShack-Leopard-Trek". Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  25. Shane Stokes (28 February 2013). "Schleck 'heading in right direction' as rider completes first full UCI race since last April". VeloNation. VeloNation LLC. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
  26. Manny D'Enef (1 April 2013). "Desperate for race miles, Schleck to start Paris-Roubaix". VeloNews. Competitor Group, Inc. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
  27. "Critérium International – 2013". Letour.fr. 1994-12-01. Retrieved 2013-04-02.
  28. http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/04/news/2013-amstel-gold-race-results_281922
  29. "La Flèche Wallonne 2014". La Flèche Wallonne 2014. Retrieved 2015-12-16.
  30. "Liège - Bastogne - Liège 2015: Results | Cyclingnews.com". Cyclingnews.com. Archived from the original on January 10, 2012. Retrieved 2015-12-16.
  31. "Results: 2013 Amgen Tour of California, stage 8 - Page 2 of 6 - VeloNews.com". VeloNews.com. Retrieved 2015-12-16.
  32. "Andy Schleck happy with form at Tour de Suisse | Cyclingnews.com". Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 2015-12-16.
  33. "Tour de Suisse 2013: Stage 9 Results | Cyclingnews.com". Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 2015-12-16.
  34. "Classifications stage 21 - Versailles > Paris Champs-Élysées". Tour de France 2013. Retrieved 2015-12-16.
  35. "Andy Schleck abandons Tour de France". 8 July 2014. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
  36. Nigel Wynn (9 October 2014). "Andy Schleck retires from professional cycling". Cycling Weekly. IPC Media Sports & Leisure network. Retrieved 9 October 2014.
  37. "News shorts: Andy Schleck to open bike shop". cyclingnews.com. 3 March 2015. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  38. "Andy Schleck's bike shop finally opens and he'll be working there full time". Cycling Weekly. 9 February 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  39. "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. Retrieved 26 January 2011.

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