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Schleck brothers stars at Tour du Luxembourg

By:
Hedwig Kröner
Published:
June 2, 2009, 12:00,
Updated:
June 5, 2009, 17:51

Siblings to lead strong Saxo squad

The five-day Tour de Luxembourg is starting tomorrow, Wednesday, June 3, with a 2.7-kilometre prologue in the city of Luxembourg. The small Grand Duchy will once again welcome an international field of riders to its stage race ending in the country's capital on Sunday.

Star riders of the event will of course be Fränk and Andy Schleck, leading a strong Saxo Bank squad also including Fabian Cancellara and Stuart O'Grady. Another big name riding the race won last year by Joost Posthuma (Rabobank) is Andreas Klöden (Astana).

The event will see a total of 15 teams take the start: Astana, Bbox Bouygues, Cofidis, Euskaltel, Katusha, Saxo Bank, Agritubel, Barloworld, CSF, ISD, Landbouwkrediet, Skil, Vacansoleil, Vorarlberg and CT Differdange.

The stages outline as follows:

Prologue - June 3: Luxembourg (2.7 km)
Stage 1 - June 4: Luxembourg - Mondorf-les-Bains (157 km)
Stage 2 - June 5: Schifflange - Differdange (187 km)
Stage 3 - June 6: Wiltz - Diekirch (185 km)
Stage 4 - June 7: Mersch - Luxembourg (160 km)

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Related riders

  • Jelle Vanendert, Fränk Schleck and Philippe gilbert await the start

    Fränk Schleck

  • Andy Schleck (Trek-Leopard) leads the select lead group

    Andy Schleck

    2nd GC, Tour de France 2009, 2010, 2011
    Best Young Rider, Tour de France, 2008, 2009, 2010
    1st Tour de France Stages: 8 & 17, 2010; 18, 2011
    2nd Giro d’Italia 2007
    1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège 2009
    2nd Flèche Wallonne 2009
    3rdLiège–Bastogne–Liège, 2011

    Looking ahead to 2012

    The big question about Andy Schleck in 2012 will be how his move to a team run by Johan Bruyneel will affect his racing. Schleck has lacked the competitive edge that Bruyneel is famous for – Schleck’s statement that he’d rather end up in second place on the Tour de France podium with his brother Fränk in third than win the race certainly doesn’t fit the Bruyneel philosophy! But Bruyneel’s attention to detail should aid Andy through this year’s Tour – and with 96km of individual time trialling, notoriously Schleck’s weak spot, he’ll need all the help he can get, if he wants to take that elusive win.

    Away from the Tour, look for Andy in the Ardennes Classics, and then aiming to become the  World Champion, on the hilly Valkenburg course.

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