More from: Fränk the summiteer

Unfortunately no new news... I think the ALAD should make a faster decision :(

Anyway, that is an older article after his victory at Alpe d'Huez from Revue. They have some real good article about the Schleck brother, currently working on a translation of Andy Schleck - The phenomenon ;)

Roller coaster ride of a summiteer

Weakened Fränk Schleck set off for riding his first Tour de France. Now he comes home with the certainty that he will become a great one of his sport.

It’s July, the 18^th. It’s the evening after Fränk Schleck glorious performance during the stage from Gap to Alpe d’Huez. Jens Voigt lie down on a bench to let himself massage. He’s watching the summary of the stage on Eurosport. He sees Schleck celebrating. “This is the future of cycling.”, he says quiet. Voigt is the one, who is known as the breakaway king and one of the most important helpers.

You can see how Schleck closes his jersey shortly before he crosses the finish line to celebrate and enjoy this historical moment. He shouts for joy. Fourty years the grand duchy had waited for that moment. Almost exact on the same day – Edi Schütz won on July, 10^th 1966 at Chamonix – a Luxembourgian is winning a stage of the Grande Boucle.

Schleck is the 13^th rider in a row Luxemburgish winners, who won altogether 64. Two years ago Kim Kirchen almost won a stage. But Thor Hushovd didn’t know any pity and ruined all hopes.

At that time there also shouted someone. But that were oaths and curses. “Fränk rode a great Tour. He won the hardest stage and finished a unique 11^th place overall”, balances Bjarne Riis. It’s been five days since Schleck conquered the 1.850m high summit and ride off Italy’s cycling hope number one Damiano Cunego and let him almost standing there about two kilometres before the finish.

Today it’s Sunday. Shortly after 6 p.m. the breath of a Danish man smells like champagne. In the bus of the team CSC, which is parked on the Place de la Concorde, there is a lot of celebration. Schleck and his teammates freshen themselves up for the lap of honour on the Champs d’Élysée.

When someone asks him what he expects of Schleck in the future you can see a little smile around his lips. “A lot.”, is the answer. “He still has some weaknesses but we will work on them. Hard training. That he has talent he already showed the world.” Finally it isn’t natural that someone finishes in 11^th place at his first Tour de France.

The adventure of the 26 year old cyclist didn’t have an auspicious start. Some weeks before the National Championships – the last test one week before the TdF – Schleck crashes during his training. He broke his nose, lost some teeth. The lips had to have stitches. Furthermore he had some injuries at his chin and neck.

The nation stopped breathing, but the all-clear came fast. Schleck will start in Straßbourg. In the capital of the Alsace the sport fade into the background. Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich, two of the supposed protagonists of the doping scandal, were suspended. CSC lost its leader.

What Fränk Schleck thought during that moments maybe will stay a secret forever. Original he had planed two help Basso to win the Tour. Without own demands. But things never turn out the way you think they will. And that is good because this conditions hold incredible chances: In absence of the leader of the time, he can ride in the spotlight.

But until that moment Schleck made acquaintance with the asphalt again. During the fifth stage from Beauvais to Caen got involved in a crash and lost two minutes and seven seconds. How you can accept when you seem to be dogged by bad luck? “The Tour...”, answers Schleck. “is like a roller coaster. Ups and downs are normal. Especially emotional. You have to believe in yourself. If that doesn’t help, there are your teammates who build you up. And your family and friends who give you morality. Without them that wouldn’t have been possible.”, added the man from Mondorf.

The performance of Schleck went upwards, when the Tour went uphill. Since the stage to Bourdeaux his position in the overall classement got better. From the 10^th stage on, he retried the field from the back. On the stage from Tarbes to Val d’Aran about 206,5km, when he finished 8^th, he came from 65^th to 20^th place in the overall.

It never had been a secret that Schleck is a good climber but that he could stay in touch with the favourites believed just the greatest optimists. He also showed the potential to win the Tour during the next years and follow in the footsteps of Charly Gaul, the man they called the Angel of the Mountains, who now can rest in peace.

Whether Ullrich, Armstrong, Pantani or Riis: All the winners of the Tour of the last decade were divinely gifted climbers. Just the ones who have extraordinary qualities in the mountains, have the chance to win the Tour. Floyd Landis, the winner of this year’s TdF, isn’t a, exception.

But also the 30 year old guy from California experienced ups and downs. After his bad day on stage 16^th, when he lost the yellow jersey to Pereiro, some people had written him off. But we all know that persons who are declared dead live longer (don’t know if that’s the right translation but that is a German proverb, so difficult to translate. Just means that people who showed a bad performance and you think that they give up, will show a much stronger performance than everybody else.). The domination of US-American cyclists continued in the year after Lance Armstrong.

From the european point of view this is extremly unpleasant, comments Marcel Gilles, the Luxemburgian pope of cycling and expert of TV-cannel RTL. How does he judge the performance of Fränk Schleck, on whose career he had much influence? Because it owes also to Gilles good contacts that Schleck signed for CSC three years ago.

“I believed Fränk is capable of winning a stage. But that he chosed the most important stage is incredibly great for Luxembourg.” Long since cycling is the number one sport in Luxembourg, says Gilles. But we have to wait how that will develop.

He adds, that it’s a shame that the Gala Tour de France had to be abolished due to financial reasons, because now the Luxembourgian cyclists are better than a lot of years before. And what message Fränk Schleck has? “My name now is written down in one of the 21 hairpin bends up to Alpe d’Huez. That’s for the eternity. But next year I will come back and see.”

Anyhow that sounds like a threat but maybe it is just a recommendation to Maggy Nagel, the mayor of Bad Mondorf, to include money for a memorial for the brothers Schleck in the next year’s budget. Because what these two guys showed during the last days – Andy won two stages at the Tour of Saxony – just sounds like the beginning of a story full of success.