Andy Schleck life and biography

Andy Raymond Schleck, born 10 June 1985 in Mondorf les Bains is a professional cycling racer since 2005.

Teams
2004: VC Roubaix
2004: Team CSC (Trainee as from 1/09)
2005: Team CSC
2006: Team CSC
2007: Team CSC
2008: Team CSC-Saxobank
2009: Team Saxobank
2010: Team Saxobank

Andy is the youngest of three sons of Gaby and Johnny Schleck. Father Schleck was a good cyclist in the fifties. Mother Schleck was a good swimmer. You can say that the sports blood runs trough his veins.
Steven, his oldest brother, was a cyclist too but he has chosen a career in politics. Andy’s other brother, Fränk, as we all know, is a cyclist too. Fränk is Andy’s teammate, roommate and best friend.

In his teenage years Andy’s parents sometimes decided not to go on vacation so they could buy bikes for their sons. But when they do go on vacation they went to France somewhere near the Mont Ventoux.
Andy was eleven when he went up the Mont Ventoux for the first time. The year after that he went up and did it in 1 hour (fastest time ever was 55,51 by Iban Mayo in the time trial of the Dauphine Libéré).

From 1997 to 2003 Andy rides for different teams (SAF Zeisseng, LC Tétange and LP Muhlenbach) and he wins all kinds of races; time trials, cycle cross and road races. In 2002 he became national champion in all three disciplines as a junior.

In 2004 he joins VC Roubaix and wins Flèche du Sud. This achievement didn’t go unnoticed by Bjarne Riis, team manager of team CSC. Riis asks Fränk if he has a younger brother who’s a cyclist as well. Fränk confirms this and Riis offers Andy a traineeship with team CSC.
After a year Andy signs a contract with this same team and joins his brother in the ProTour-races.

His debut in the ProTour is at the age of 19 in the tour of Catalonia. Soon after that he has his first victory as a professional. He wins the Luxembourg championship time trial.
In 2006 he added two stage victories in the Sachsen tour, to his list.

Andy’s success kept on going in 2007 and he got a second place in the Giro d’Italia and won the white jersey. This was his first big tour and his big breakthrough.

In 2008 he came in fourth in Liege – Bastogne- Liege and in his first Tour de France he came in twelfth in the overall classification and won the white jersey.

2009 brings Andy his first big classic race victory. Liege- Bastogne- Liege. This after a very impressive solo. The others of team Saxo Bank , including his brother Fränk, stopped every attack and Andy could ride the last 20 km alone to the finish. “I won the best Classic race” Andy says afterwards in an interview.

A month and a half later Andy wins a stage in the Tour of Luxembourg. And he wins the National Championship.

In the national jersey Andy goes to the Tour de France for the second time. A big success, he helps his brother on the Col du Romme and the Col de la Colombiere, so he can win in Le Grand- Barnard. “It was the perfect day” he says when he thinks back of that day. This Tour de France Andy ends as runner up in the overall classification and wins the white jersey again.

Later that year Andy wins: sportsman of the year and man of the year in his home country Luxembourg.

If Andy was in a flow in 2009 and he still is in that flow, what will 2010 bring him?
The Tour? Amstel Gold race? We shall see…….

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