Andy and Fränk Schleck will be Saxo Bank’s big hopes for GC success this year, at the head of perhaps the strongest all-round team in the 2010 Tour.
The pair present an intriguing proposition: Fränk won the Tour de Suisse a few weeks back; and Andy’s now approaching his stage-race prime, and has improved his major weakness, time-trialling, winning the Luxembourg National TT Champs last weekend (OK, OK, I hear you – the competition probably wasn’t that fierce). However, there remain doubts about their killer instinct and Andy has arguably not shown top form yet this year. He also crashed on 26 June during a training ride – although, presumably, if his injuries had been more than very superficial he wouldn’t have alerted the Tweet-o-sphere to them (see pic).
And then there’s the machine (ahem) Fabian Cancellara, hot favorite for the opening and closing time trials, Matti Breschel, who’s more than capable of a stage win or two, as well as capable support from the Sørensons, Fuglsang and cycling’s answer to Chuck Norris, Jens Voigt. Stuart O’Grady has been preferred to Gustav Larsson thanks to his helping Fränk at the Tour de Suisse, though Larsson is on standby.
Many would argue they don’t have quite the cutting edge, but DS Bjarne Riis is scouting for a new sponsor, so they’ll be sure to put on a show.
The line-up in full:
Matti Breschel (DEN)
Fabian Cancellara (SWI)
Jakob Fuglsang (DEN)
Stuart O’Grady (AUS)
Andy Schleck (LUX)
Fränk Schleck (LUX)
Chris Anker Sørenson (DEN)
Nicki Sørenson (DEN)
Jens Voigt (GER)
