Gunning for greatness

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Andy shreds the peloton in the 2008 Tour(Image credit: Bettini Photo)

Will 2009 be the year a new champion will be crowned? Many are looking at the Astana team as the big challengers for the Tour de France, yet Luxembourger Andy Schleck could rewrite the script and spoil their party. Second in his first Grand Tour, arguably the strongest rider in last year's Grande Boucle, the Saxo Bank rider now has the experience to mount a serious challenge in cycling's biggest race.

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Schleck is, for many, a future Tour winner. Famed French coach Cyrille Guimard suggested as such, and he is very entitled to his opinion; after all, he's worked with Bernard Hinault, Greg LeMond, Laurent Fignon and Lucien Van Impe, who between them won ten editions of the race. Guimard was also heavily involved with the French amateur team Vélo Club Roubaix, where saw Schleck's potential and steered him towards a pro career.

Considering what he's done so far, its easy to think of Schleck as an older rider than he actually is. He's finished second in the Giro d'Italia, fourth in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, fifth in the Olympic road race and sixth in the Tour de Suisse. Overall wins in the Flèche du Sud, the mountains classification of the Tour of Britain and white jerseys in the Tour of Italy and France are also on his palmares, as are two stages of the Sachsen Tour and the Luxembourg time trial championship.

Last summer Schleck rode the Tour for the first time in his career. He finished twelfth overall, the same position in which he began the race's 10th stage to Hautacam, where he lost any chance of winning the race when he suffered a hunger knock. But by the end of that stage, Schleck had lost a whopping 8'59 to stage winner Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval – Prodir), and spent the rest of the race riding for his team-mates Frank Schleck, his brother, and the eventual winner Carlos Sastre. Even with his domestique duties and that one bad day, he finished just 11'32 behind Sastre in Paris as the best young rider.

"I would have been able to win some stages, but I sacrificed myself... I was there for the team so that is why I did it. But I had the white jersey and I was standing on the podium two times, with the team and the best young rider award. And I think that twelfth place – or eleventh overall [Bernhard Kohl, third, was later found positive -ed] is good. Okay, I think that I could have done more. For sure, I had one black day, the stage to Hautacam. I got the hunger flat there and lost nine minutes...that shouldn't have happened."

"In the meeting beforehand we said that we [someone from the team] wanted to win the stage, to have the jersey for Frank or for Carlos. We waited until the Alpe, then Carlos attacked. He was the first one gone and it worked out that the stage was for him, and also the jersey. In the end everyone saw it was good, because he did a strong time trial. But I finished third on that stage and would have loved to have won there, actually."

Fact is, he still rode a superb race. Hautacam cost him a place in the top ten, but he achieved a lot in those three weeks and also learned much. What was the most important lesson? "To eat!" he responds, laughing. "To eat and drink properly. I learned a lot, for sure. I think it was important that I saw it first, and then in the future I can go there to be a big contender. Maybe not next year, maybe not in two years, but someday I will be there to win it.

"It's very different to the Giro. I did that the year before. You can't say that race is easier, as such, but there is less pressure, less media. After a Giro stage you could ride to your bus, whereas in the Tour you were standing there at the end, doing interviews and everything. It is a lot bigger, and that is what makes the race harder. Also, so too the fact that it is on TV from kilometre zero... riders who know that they can perhaps not win in the finale try to go in the breakaway early on. In the Giro that situation is a little more calm."

"Mentally, I think I am not that different from Frank. To do what we are doing, you need a strong character. You also need a certain discipline in your life, and to follow that. Okay, Frank is more disciplined than I am....but I think that he is also sometimes more stressed. Most of the time I take things easy. If I am training well and I know I am good shape, then I am probably not going to be worried about things."

Schleck said that he was satisfied with his form so far this year. He'll have built on it between now and when he will make his season debut in the Tour of California, before he returns to Europe for Paris-Nice, Milan-Sanremo and Criterium Internationale. After that the Tour du Pays Basques beckons as final preparation his first season target, the trio of Amstel Gold, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

"I feel that next year in the Tour, we will have Frank and I for the overall. We will also be going there with a really strong team," he countered, a little defensively. "I think the team this year is going to be even better than last year. Carlos was strong in the mountains, but he will not be there. Now we can take someone else who can ride on the flat, for example. Who can do three or four kilometres of the climb really hard, so our team is not going to be weaker. It is going to be stronger next year."

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