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Andy Schleck set to announce retirement?

Trek Factory Racing calls Thursday press conference with 29-year-old

Could Andy Schleck be about to turn his back on professional cycling? That’s the rumour sweeping cycling circles this evening after Trek Factory Racing announced a press conference with the 29-year-old in Luxembourg this Thursday.

Coming at the end of the season, it’s an unusual time for a rider to want to face the press, and it will happen after another frustrating year for Schleck, who has struggled to get his career back on track after sustaining a fractured sacrum in the 2012 Critérium du Dauphiné.

He missed that year’s Tour de France, ending a run of three consecutive years in which he’d finished second in Paris, being awarded the 2010 victory after Alberto Contador was stripped of it by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in early 2012.

Schleck should have gone into the 2012 Tour as one of the favourites, but his injury kept him out of the sport for four months. His older brother Fränk did ride it, but on the second rest day in Pau it was revealed he had tested positive for the diuretic, xipamide.

In October of that year, as Andy continued his recovery from injury and Fränk awaited the result of his disciplinary hearing, their father Jonny – a one-time Vuelta stage winner – urged both to give up cycling.

Since that injury in 2012, Schleck has failed to recapture the form that brought him a Liege-Bastogne-Liege victory in 2009, plus the best young rider’s white jersey for three years in a row at the Tour de France.

Instead, his subsequent performances have been characterised by a string of races that he either did not finish, or in which he ended up well down the general classification.

That fractured sacrum in 2012 is likely to go down as the pivotal moment of his career. Less than 12 months earlier, a barnstorming solo win on Stage 18 of the 2011 Tour set him up to take the yellow jersey from Thomas Voeckler on the Alpe d’Huez 24 hours later.

He would lose it a day later on the penultimate stage to race winner, Cadel Evans, and even though he was awarded the 2010 Tour de France victory seven months later, he insisted he wanted to achieve victory in the race on the road, not in the courtroom.

After finishing 20th overall last year, he returned to the race this July, but while heading through Epping into London on Stage 3, he sustained a knee injury after a number of riders came down after a fan stepped out into the road to take a photo.

Abandoning the race the next morning, he told Cycling News that it was “the worst moment I've ever had in cycling,” and “heartbreaking.”

He said: “I want to carry on. I feel like I still belong in cycling. I don't want to stop because of a crash … I thought for a moment that it might all be over but I don't want to give up like this. I crashed out of the Tour and that's not how I want people to remember me.”

"I believe I can come back. I have to believe that," he added.

Should he confirm his retirement on Thursday – and certainly that seems to be the way things are looking – it will be a sad end to a career that once promised so much.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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15 comments

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Leviathan | 9 years ago
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I hope he doesn't stop. 29 is still quite young, though he might feel he will never regain elite form again. Perhaps he should have split from his brother when he had a chance, though Trek was a safe harbour when he was injured did he have any other choices?

The 2011 break away was epic, and Evans looked as pained as ever, having to hunt him down. He might not have ever won it 'on the road' but he certainly put the other contenders to the sword. Bravo, it was a good show.

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sanderville | 9 years ago
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I was just wondering during the World Champs and Lombardy whether Andy Schleck would retire at the end of this season. Some people make disparaging comments about him as a rider, and I have made flippant comments about him too, but out of frustration more than anything else. When he was in form I bet a total over over £200 on him to win various races, only to see him fade away and pull out of each one. So at least I did put my money where my mouth was and I thought he should have been a winner.

I can't imagine the frustration that he must feel himself when what should have been the best years of his career went off like a damp squib. Andy Schleck should have been one of the greats.

Now what will he do? Who wants a commentator who can only say "well when I pulled out of this race in 2011," or "well I never actually rode this part of the stage because I was in the car..."?

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andyp | 9 years ago
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It's a neck injury, apparently. From constantly looking over his shoulder to see where Fronk is.

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James Warrener | 9 years ago
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I agree with the positive sentiments towards Andy. Regardless of how good/bad/indifferent his recent form has been, he is a former Tour winner and to have to give up through injury is heartbreaking.

I can only imagine how bad I would feel should I have to give up cycling.

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RobD | 9 years ago
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I hope he isn't retiring, it'd be nice to see him have at least one good year where he finds his confidence and form, a few more on form GC contenders in the Grand tours would be a good thing for all

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Airzound | 9 years ago
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And Frank?

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ct replied to Airzound | 9 years ago
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Airzound wrote:

And Frank?

Hasn't Fronck already signed up for 2014? With Trek?

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mrmo | 9 years ago
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the amusing thing, people say he is a crap descender, in the same way as people say some pros are crap time-triallists.

Now how many people could stay with him on a descent? He may not be the best descender but he is still a lot better than most.

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stenmeister | 9 years ago
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Maybe he's been given a contract extension?  7

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MNgraveur | 9 years ago
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I really fail to understand the venom I see on various cycling sites towards Andy Schleck. He seems like a decent person, perhaps a bit too nice, and he brought us some exciting racing in his prime. It's a shame if his career ends this way.

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Welsh boy | 9 years ago
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Oh how we will miss him, his attacking style, his no-excuses attitude and his superb descending skills. Do us all a favour Andy, just go quietly (and quickly).

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Simon_MacMichael replied to Welsh boy | 9 years ago
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Welsh boy wrote:

Oh how we will miss him, his attacking style, his no-excuses attitude and his superb descending skills. Do us all a favour Andy, just go quietly (and quickly).

The atack from what, more than 60km out on Stage 18 of the 2011 Tour is one of the more insane things I have ever seen a GC contender do, and made for a thrilling afternoon's racing; and if Cadel Evans hadn't led the response (putting paid to his 'wheelsucker' critics), it would have won Schleck the Tour.

Voeckler in yellow Thursday evening, Schleck on the Friday, Evans on the Saturday ahead of the procession into Paris; what a great race.

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othello replied to Simon_MacMichael | 9 years ago
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Simon_MacMichael wrote:
Welsh boy wrote:

Oh how we will miss him, his attacking style, his no-excuses attitude and his superb descending skills. Do us all a favour Andy, just go quietly (and quickly).

The atack from what, more than 60km out on Stage 18 of the 2011 Tour is one of the more insane things I have ever seen a GC contender do, and made for a thrilling afternoon's racing; and if Cadel Evans hadn't led the response (putting paid to his 'wheelsucker' critics), it would have won Schleck the Tour.

Voeckler in yellow Thursday evening, Schleck on the Friday, Evans on the Saturday ahead of the procession into Paris; what a great race.

Insane but also planned (by master tactician Riis I suspect). Two teammates sent up the road in the early break away. Andy bridges them a long way out and the peloton initially don't respond as it is too far. Then he goes solo and realisation kicks in, Cadel has to chase and a gripping finale. Schleck didn't actually gain *that* much time in the end, but boy what an attack.

He is still a crap descender though  1

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step-hent replied to Simon_MacMichael | 9 years ago
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Simon_MacMichael wrote:
Welsh boy wrote:

Oh how we will miss him, his attacking style, his no-excuses attitude and his superb descending skills. Do us all a favour Andy, just go quietly (and quickly).

The atack from what, more than 60km out on Stage 18 of the 2011 Tour is one of the more insane things I have ever seen a GC contender do, and made for a thrilling afternoon's racing; and if Cadel Evans hadn't led the response (putting paid to his 'wheelsucker' critics), it would have won Schleck the Tour.

Voeckler in yellow Thursday evening, Schleck on the Friday, Evans on the Saturday ahead of the procession into Paris; what a great race.

A great race it certainly was. Yes, the attach was most likely planned by Riis, but it was still a huge gamble. The brilliance of it as a spectacle was underlined by the fact that Merckx was hanging out of the sunroof of the race directors car, apparently shouting at Schleck to keep going - for me, that was the cherry on top of an amazing few weeks of racing.

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only1redders replied to Welsh boy | 9 years ago
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Welsh boy wrote:

Oh how we will miss him, his attacking style, his no-excuses attitude and his superb descending skills. Do us all a favour Andy, just go quietly (and quickly).

It's always somewhat of a challenge spotting irony in written text, but I assume that the 'no excuses' attitude might be referring to his legendary complaining and descending skills: http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/racing/tour-de-france/are-the-tour-de-fra...

Don't want to hate though. In his pomp at least he put up a fight against old Bertie

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