Fränk Schleck

In the Amstel Gold Race, he crashed with 47 km to go, eventually finishing 10th.

His recovery continued at La Flèche Wallonne where he finished 7th, but the day before Liège–Bastogne–Liège, it was announced that he had a fractured vertebra.

He rode despite the injury and launched the decisive attack a few kilometers from the finish with Danilo Di Luca.

Di Luca attacked with one kilometer to go and Schleck faded to 3rd.

Schleck won the fourth stage of the Tour de Suisse, taking the yellow jersey; he eventually finished 7th.

Their father, Johny Schleck, was a professional road bicycle racer between 1965 and 1974, as was their grandfather, Gustave Schleck, who contested events in the 1930s.

Fränk René Schleck (born 15 April 1980) is a Luxembourgish former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2003 and 2016, for and.

In 2001, he tried out as a stagiaire for, but when the team folded after the season, Schleck was left with no contract.

He contacted Team CSC manager Bjarne Riis through their common youth coach Marcel Gilles of the ACC Contern amateur team.

Schleck rode 2002 as a stagiaire on Team CSC and signed to a pro contract by Riis in 2003.

He finished all three races behind Paolo Bettini (2004 Olympic Road Race winner) and Gilberto Simoni (two times Giro d'Italia winner), losing Züri-Metzgete to Bettini, the Giro dell'Emilia to Simoni, and finishing third behind both in the Giro di Lombardia.

At the start of 2005, Schleck was joined by his younger brother Andy On, and they split the 2005 national championships between them, with Fränk winning the road race and Andy winning the time trial.

Schleck's breakthrough came in 2005, with three podium places in the last month of the season.

Schleck ended 2005 ranked 13th on the 2005 ProTour riders list.

Schleck's greatest achievements include five national road race championships, winning the Queen stage of the 2006 Tour de France, which finished on the Alpe d'Huez, the 2006 edition of the Amstel Gold Race classic, and an alpine stage of the 2009 Tour de France, finishing in the sole company of his brother Andy and Alberto Contador.

The 2006 season started with a fifth-place finish in Paris–Nice.

After a crash in the Tour of the Basque Country, he suffered a concussion.

He made his comeback in the Amstel Gold Race that month.

Sitting with the favorites with ten kilometers to go, Schleck broke away alone up the Cauberg in Valkenburg for a solo finish while teammate Karsten Kroon disrupted the chase.

Three days later he finished 4th in La Flèche Wallonne after a vigorous ride up the Mur de Huy where Spanish rider Alejandro Valverde proved unbeatable.

Schleck's form continued days later with the Liège–Bastogne–Liège race, where he rode at the front for much of the latter half and finished 7th.

In the Tour de France, he won stage 15 from Gap to Alpe d'Huez, where he broke away from Damiano Cunego 1.5 km from the finish.

The 2007 season started with a 9th-place finish in Paris–Nice.

He extended his contract with Riis and Team CSC until 2008, one of three riders in the team with a three-year contract.

Schleck is the older brother of Andy, winner of the 2010 Tour de France.

On 30 January 2013, Schleck was suspended for 12 months following a positive test for xipamide at the 2012 Tour de France.

The ban, backdated to the date of the positive test, expired on 13 July 2013.

After riding for the Luxembourg military sports programme, he moved to Italy to ride for De Nardi–Pasta Montegrappa.

He could only manage 17th at the Tour de France but was part of the successful attack in the world championship, finishing fourth.

In the Amstel Gold Race Schleck finished 2nd, behind Damiano Cunego of Italy.

In Liège–Bastogne–Liège Fränk and his talented younger brother Andy Schleck put on a show.

Only two riders were able to follow the two brothers when they attacked on the final hills of the day: Alejandro Valverde and Davide Rebellin.

Andy had to let the other three riders go and finished 4th; in the final sprint Fränk came 3rd.

In the Tour de Suisse Schleck crashed during a dangerous descent and fell into a ravine.

Miraculously, he was mostly uninjured.

A week later, Schleck became national champion of Luxembourg for the second time in his career.

In the Tour de France he came 3rd in the first mountain stage.

This took him to 2nd place in the overall classification, only one second behind the yellow jersey.

Eight days later Schleck took the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification after claiming the single second he needed to pass Cadel Evans.

He later lost the yellow jersey on Stage 17 to his own teammate, Carlos Sastre.