Cycling Profile: Andy Schleck
Andy Raymond Schleck is a Luxembourgish professional road bicycle racer and he was born in Luxembourg City on June 10, 1985. He is the young brother of Frank Schleck who is also a cyclist and Andy father Johny Schleck is former professional cyclists was
rode in two major events, Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana between 1965 and 1974.
Andy took the eighth stage of Tour de France in 2010 and finally he grabbed runner-up spot in the overall standing and secured white jersey for the third consecutive year.
As an amateur, Andy Schleck took a part in the VC Roubaix cycling club in the season of 2004 and caught the attention of Sports director Cyrille Guimard, who becomes the famous in the Tour de France as sportif directeur, including Laurent Fignon, Greg LeMond
and Bernard Hinault. He described that Andy is one of the biggest talent he ever seen. At 18 years of age, Schleck took the Fleche du Sud in 2004.
In 2005 season Andy and Frank shared the National championship. Frank grabbed the road race while Andy took a lead in the individual time trial. In the season of 2006, Schleck crashed in the GP Cholet and in May he took a lead in the eight-man breakaway
before returning for the Volta a Catalunya.
Andy took overall Mountain classification in Tour of Britain and he continue his good performance and managed to take a first place in third and fifth stage if Sachsen Tour.
Andy Schleck showed a good effort in Tour Giro d’ltalia 2007 and took title of Best Young Rider standing and grabbed runner-up spot after Danilo Di Luca. In the tour of Giro di Lombardia Andy took the overall fourth place after helping his younger brother
Frank who faced a problem with a crash.
Andy’s success continued in 2008 after taking the young rider standing in Tour de France. He also took the first stage of Tour de Pologne and grabbed fifth place in Olympics Men’s road race as well as fourth place in Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
In 2009 season, Andy took his first biggest victory of his career when he took the first place in Liege-Bastogne-Liege and became the first winner from Luxembourg since Marcel Emzer in 1954. He also finished runner-up spot in La Fleche Wallonne.
In Tour de France 2009, Andy was in runner-up spot in the overall standing behind Alberto Contador and ahead of Lance Armstrong. He also again secured his Young cyclists standing.
In 2010, he took first place in National time trial championships. In Tour de France, he took the eighth and seventeenth stage. Andy showed a tremendous effort and was much closer to the victory but again he failed and took the runner-up spot with difference
of 39 seconds. He again clinched the Young rider standing in a row. He was involved in crash in Tour de France, when in mountain stage his chain fell off, while Contador increased his pace and took a lead.
Contador took the 18 stage and also won the 19 stage to take yellow jersey but finally he took the runner-spot in the overall standing in Tour de France. Recently, he took the Mountain standing in Tour de Suisse. If the Andy continues his impressive efforts
then there is possibility that next year he can win the Tour de France 2012.
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