FOCUS ON: ANDY SCHLECK

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Andy Schleck is a professional road bicycle racer who hails from Luxembourg and races for team RadioShack-Nissan-Trek. His elder brother Frank Schleck also races for the same team. He started his career as an armature rider in 2004 with VC Roubaix cycling club.

His talent and abilities were noticed by Cyrille Guimard, who is a sports director and has directed several Tour de France winners. Bjarne Riis who is the manager of the Danish Team CSC got word of Andy and asked about him to brother Frank who was racing for CSC at that time. Andy was taken in CSC as a stagiaire, means an amature rider who rides in a professional team and his abilities are assessed.

Andy Schleck along with his brother Frank won the 2005 National Championships with Frank winning the road race and Andy individual time trial. His next major win came in 2007 after winning the Young Rider Classification at Giro d’Italia. After this Andy’s winning streak continued and he won the Young Rider Classification in 2008 edition of the Tour de France. The biggest win, so far, of his career came when he won the Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 2009. In the 2009 edition of tour de France he secured the second place.

In 2009 tour de France Andy Schleck also won the Young Rider Classification. The nest year Andy was just 39 seconds behind the winner at tour de France and came second although he was the winner of Young Riders Classification. This was his third consecutive win. Though Alberto Contador was the winner everybody believed that Andy should have been the winner since he was leading from the beginning and lost 39 seconds as his chains fell on a mountain stage. In 2012 he was awarded the winner based on Alberto’s CAS hearing.

SCHLECK STARTS IN OMAN

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Andy Schleck, the three time Tour de France runner up is gearing up for the most prestigious cycling event of the year by joining his at the Tour of Oman that will kick off on the 14th of February, culminating on the 19th of that month. This will be the first competitive ride of the season for the 26 year old from Luxembourg and he is looking forward to building much needed momentum ahead of the grand Tour. Schleck has been the winner of the Young Rider Classification at the Tour de France on three consecutive occasions in 2008, 2009 and 2010 but the elusive Yellow Jersey is something he craves for more than anything in the world.

This desire to win the Yellow Jersey at the Tour de France led him to join the Radio Shack team in 2011 but the famous jersey eluded him that year as well. Now, Andy Schleck is ready to start off the season with his team and hopes that a victory at Oman will add much needed confidence and momentum to the team as well as him personally.

The 26 year old said about his participation at the Tour of Oman that it was the perfect race to kick start the season and the weather conditions there is absolutely ideal. Schleck will then compete with his brother Frank Schleck at the Tour of the Netherlands, after racing at the Paris – Nice and he hopes that these few races will get him geared up for the biggest ride of the season.

However, Andy Schleck is not only concentrating on the Tour de France alone and has also set his eyes on the classic races such as the Liege – Bastogne – Liege, the Fleche Wallonne as well as the Amstel Gold Race, where he will compete with his brother.