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Schlecks confirm plans to leave Saxo Bank

By VeloNews.com • Updated: Aug 12th 2010 5:15 PM EDT

Amid speculation that Tour de France winner Alberto Contador is poised to join the Saxo Bank team for 2011, brothers Andy and Fränk Schleck have confirmed that they will be leaving to join a new squad based in their native Luxembourg.

Frank and Andy Schleck are ready to leave the team they've ridden on for most of their careers.

Frank and Andy Schleck are ready to leave the team they've ridden on for most of their careers.

In an interview with the daily newspaper Le Quotidien, Tour de France runner-up Andy Schleck said that while plans for the new team are incomplete, he and his 30-year-old brother will not extend their existing contracts with the team run by Bjarne Riis.

“Even if we don’t yet know what our future holds, it is certain, it’s official that we are no longer riding for Bjarne next year,” the 25-year-old Andy Schleck told the paper.

Andy Schleck has spent five years and Fränk eight alongside Riis, who had, in advance of the Tour de France, already conceded that the brothers were unlikely to remain on the team.

“I cannot imagine a new Luxembourg team without Frank and Andy Schleck on it,” Riis said.

Meanwhile, Andy Schleck acknowledged that Riis was actively courting Contador, but made it clear that the two wouldn’t be riding on the same team.

Earlier this week, Contador had rejected his Astana team’s demand that he make a commitment to extend his contract, which is set to expire at season’s end. With the departure of the Schlecks, Riis has turned is focus on the only rider who has consistently beaten the brothers, finishing ahead of Andy Schleck for the past two editions of the Tour.

While his team’s primary financial support from Saxo Bank will end at the end of 2010, Riis has already confirmed a renewed and increased commitment from co-sponsor Sungard and has said another company is poised to step in as the team’s title sponsor for the next two years.

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  • Key thing for the Scheck's future is who will be the domestiques. Bjarne has always had a great supporting cast of strong flat men to support the fly weights. If Contrador moves over, imagine having Cancellara as the horsepower through the flat stages. Pretty impressive.
  • cat5fred
    Unless Riis lines up a mega sponsor to be able to lure Contador and bring along AC's choice of domestiques, I think with the Schlecks leaving so do his chances for anything big next year.
  • sailseahawk
    I like seeing the Brothers sticking together. Not many folks in sport get to be on the same team with their brother, and fewer who are at their level. Pretty nice to have some one next to you who was, is, and will be with you all the time. Racing bikes for a living, at the top of the sport, and with your brother next to you. Wouldn't we all like to be so fortunate!
  • jimsanta
    Although I went into this Tour as a BIG AC fan, I came out of it having a ton of admiration for Andy! Of the expected moves, I think AC gets the better of it by far, even though it will be his third leadership enviornment in three years. Too much work and distraction and technical preparation for the Schlecks and an as yet unnamed but new leadership group. I feel sorry for Andy even though he gets to pursue what he must see as a dream situation. But... he IS young enough to let a year pass for maturing of the new organization, so we may have to wait for 2012 for the REAL AC-AS rematch!
  • ab8
    You are right that Andy's age plays well for him here. It certainly mitigates the risk.

    I always thought Ulrich would have been better off teaming up with Rijs. The effect of a good director is not to be underplayed.

    However, Andy and Frank certainly have the star-power to draw talented management into the fold.

    It will be interesting.
  • Laurant Jalabert will always beat Lance in an Ironman... True Story
  • thebigidea
    Did you bump your head? Just wondering.......
  • fatguyoncouch
    I wonder would levi make it to the podium if he was on EPO????? Would Cavendish be as fast if Erik (epo)Zabel wasnt his coach??? If lance was clean in the 7 tours he won....what could he have done on EPO!!! Why is Riis such an influential person in cycling when he used EPO and won the tour???
  • ab8
    Well, the difference for a lot of people is that Rijs ADMITTED he used EPO and does not try to equivocate or cover up the past. Neither does he clothe himself as a born-again crusader quite the way Millar does. It is hard to believe that others, who have not admitted such, are innocent when one considers the mosaic of all information.

    Rijs is influential because he is good at what he does, and because he has come forward and been honest.

    Unfortunately, when it comes to this sport, I now suspect everyone... I know, seems unfair. But after those "great guys" like Tyler were found out, I lost all belief.
  • ntiger
    I wonder if the team will use Sram shifters.
  • This will be funny. Contador and Riis who knows the Schleck brothers from inside out. I can't wait for the next Tour de France. It will not always be like 2010 when Alberto was ill before the Tour and couldn't prepare properly and will not every year suffer from stomach problems before the TT. And if Andy really means that he can win without help he's still a boy and will have to learn a lot.
  • Could Radio Shack be the new home for the schlecks ?
  • ntiger
    Yes and the name for the new team is Radio Schleck....
  • Radio Schleck! Too funny.
  • davejesq
    Armstrong said at the Tour that Radio Shack had an option on the Schlecks if the Luxembourg team fell through, but that was unlikely.
  • 1tallrider
    This will end badly for the Schlecks, no tour wins, no classic wins, no invites. I believe Contador will ride even better under Riis.
  • davejesq
    If Specialized is the new title cosponsor for Riis and Contador, that means that not only would the Schlecks have to put together all of the other aspects of a new team: sponsors, facilities, management, staff, riders, UCI approval/protour status, scheduling, etc., but they would also have to recruit new equipment sponsors (any bets on whether they will stay with SRAM after Andy's problems in the TDF?), and complete the bike fitting/customization process, including tons of wind tunnel time, all while promoting the new team and sponsors. While Nygard and Andersen will surely shoulder a lot of the load, don't think that they will sneeze without asking Frank and Andy which direction to choose. Looks like a busy and hectic off season, particularly given the fact that their participation in the Vuelta will prevent them from getting much of a head start. It would have been so much cleaner and easier to join an existing team, like Radio Shack, even if they had to purge the Tour team of a few dinosaurs. Team Sky's and Katyusha's struggles, even with their massive resources and Sastre's description of how much the start up of Cervelo distracted him from the bike, are reason to wonder if starting a new team will significantly harm Andy's chances next July.
  • davejesq
    If Specialized is the new title cosponsor for Riis and Contador, that means that not only would the Schlecks have to put together all of the other aspects of a new team: sponsors, facilities, management, staff, riders, UCI approval/protour status, scheduling, etc., but they would also have to recruit new equipment sponsors (any bets on whether they will stay with SRAM after Andy's problems in the TDF?), and complete the bike fitting/customization process, including tons of wind tunnel time, all while promoting the new team and sponsors. While Nygard and Andersen will surely shoulder a lot of the load, don't think that they will sneeze without asking Frank and Andy which direction to choose. Looks like a busy and hectic off season, particularly given the fact that their participation in the Vuelta will prevent them from getting much of a head start. It would have been so much cleaner and easier to join an existing team, like Radio Shack, even if they had to purge the Tour team of a few dinosaurs. Team Sky's and Katyusha's struggles, even with their massive resources and Sastre's description of how much the start up of Cervelo distracted him from the bike, are reason to wonder if starting a new team will significantly harm Andy's chances next July.
  • The new team needs to budget for major wind tunnel time....
  • FortitudineVincimus
    Both these moves are the best moves and love to see the athletes do what is in THEIR best interest and what they feel is best to improve their chances. Forget about what outsiders and back seat coaches want. Contador wants to move on... do it. The Schlecks want to jump on board a Luxembourg team.. do it. And don't consider for 1 second what pesky outsiders want.

    The most interesting thing to me is who is going to step up and take over Saxo Bank as lead team sponsor. Very curious.
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