FRANK,THE BIG BROTHER WHO WANTS THE TOUR:
He’s the oldest of the Schleck brothers.He’s already won an Amstel Gold Race and the Alpe d’Huez stage at the Tour.He still remembers the day when his father asked him to take care of his brother Andy.The little boy wanted to become a cyclist.He used to follow Frank during the training sessions and he never gave in.The challenges.The talent of the young brother and the sacrifices of the elder.The common dreams.The excitement for the new bike and the excitement for the gifts under the Christmas tree.And now the project of the Tour,of the Liége and of the Tour of Lombardy,"the most beautiful race in the world".
5 years ago,few days after the beginning of the spring season,Johnny Schleck beckoned his son Frank.The boy left the bike that he was preparing for his daily training session and went near to his father.
“Look at your brother.Have you noticed how much he wants to go out training with you? And have you noticed how he rides uphill? That boy will go far,even Guimard thinks it.I spoke to him the other day and he told me that,in all his life,he's seen just other 3 riders as strong as Andy. And these riders were Hinault,Lemond and Fignon“.
Frank didn’t say anything,just nodded his head.He knew that Andy was a strong boy and that sometimes he would push himself beyond prudence's limits rather than give in.At that point, Frank thought about the beginning of his career.He remembered his sufference in staying away from home and the period he spent in Italy with Stanga.He remembered the few motivations he had in that period and the desire of giving up cycling-a desire that he felt when some French ds told him that they didn’t need him in their teams,because “we can find riders as good as you everywhere here in France”.If Riis hadn’t arrived,Frank admitted,his life would have been completely different.
"The youngest boys",he said to his father while laughing,"always find a smooth road in front of them".
“Hey,come here”,he said to his brother after few seconds.”Let’s see if you’re really as strong as people say..."
Since the 2 Schleck brothers started to race for the same team,people can look at them and immediately understand what "being brothers" means,although they are deeply different from one another.In fact Andy seems to find easy things that for other people are terribly hard,whereas Frank seems a solid,calm,simple and stubborn man that knows he will have to work very hard to achieve the goals that already shine in the future of his younger brother.
"After all,Andy’s always been a big angel",Frank says with a smile."I immediately realised that he was stronger than me,a rider understands it if another cyclist still has something to give when all the other guys are already riding at full gas or are very tired.I immediately saw his talent and,even if I made a lot of promises to my father,I never managed to keep him in check.I’m always afraid that he can fall and get hurt.And I don't envy him at all,he's my brother! Perhaps having him at my side gives me even more motivation.Of course I’ve got lots of personal dreams as well.This year for example I’d like to win the Liége,the Lombardy and arrive on the Tour podium.I want to fight for my dreams and so,even if they won’t come true,I won’t have any regret,because I’ll know that I did everything I could to make them become reality“.
Although he can speak Italian well,Frank prefers to give interviews in English because he feels more confident when he speaks that language.His English is fluent and he talks in a calm and harmonic way.The armchair slowly becomes a confessional and you realise that all the miles he rode during the winter and during the races have allowed him to reflect on lots of things.He watches you in a serene and direct way,he often smiles and he faces every topic in a relaxed way.He remains calm even when we tell him that,after Riis’ confession in 2007,his team risked to fail.
“What happened with Riis has been shock",he admits,"but we rallied all together and we started to talk.What should have we done? There were some people who were really happy because they thought that Csc Team was going to disappear.We heard them as well,but what could have we done with them? Actually,at that point we did the only thing that true men do when they have to face hard moments.We watched each other in the eyes.We called Bjarne and we asked him what was going on.He told us his story and,all together,we decided to go on.Being filled with indignancy or turning our backs on Bjarne would have been a very hypocrite thing to do.We were very united and managed to leave the past behind".
“We are the only ones that can leave problems behind,it is useless to wait for someone else to come and help us.Lots of people talk,but we’re the only team that has done something credible in the war against doping and in fact now lots of other teams are using our same methods.We’re out from the doping crisis because we accepted it.If we had let panic or emotions take over us,like lots of people in the cycling world do when some things happen,we wouldn’t have been here now. But behaving like that would have involved the destruction of years of hard work.Inside the team there are men and women who have a family,we couldn’t accept to see things end in this way,just because of a bad story that happened 12 years ago..."
(pic by BCullinan/Pez)
He’s the oldest of the Schleck brothers.He’s already won an Amstel Gold Race and the Alpe d’Huez stage at the Tour.He still remembers the day when his father asked him to take care of his brother Andy.The little boy wanted to become a cyclist.He used to follow Frank during the training sessions and he never gave in.The challenges.The talent of the young brother and the sacrifices of the elder.The common dreams.The excitement for the new bike and the excitement for the gifts under the Christmas tree.And now the project of the Tour,of the Liége and of the Tour of Lombardy,"the most beautiful race in the world".
5 years ago,few days after the beginning of the spring season,Johnny Schleck beckoned his son Frank.The boy left the bike that he was preparing for his daily training session and went near to his father.
“Look at your brother.Have you noticed how much he wants to go out training with you? And have you noticed how he rides uphill? That boy will go far,even Guimard thinks it.I spoke to him the other day and he told me that,in all his life,he's seen just other 3 riders as strong as Andy. And these riders were Hinault,Lemond and Fignon“.
Frank didn’t say anything,just nodded his head.He knew that Andy was a strong boy and that sometimes he would push himself beyond prudence's limits rather than give in.At that point, Frank thought about the beginning of his career.He remembered his sufference in staying away from home and the period he spent in Italy with Stanga.He remembered the few motivations he had in that period and the desire of giving up cycling-a desire that he felt when some French ds told him that they didn’t need him in their teams,because “we can find riders as good as you everywhere here in France”.If Riis hadn’t arrived,Frank admitted,his life would have been completely different.
"The youngest boys",he said to his father while laughing,"always find a smooth road in front of them".
“Hey,come here”,he said to his brother after few seconds.”Let’s see if you’re really as strong as people say..."
Since the 2 Schleck brothers started to race for the same team,people can look at them and immediately understand what "being brothers" means,although they are deeply different from one another.In fact Andy seems to find easy things that for other people are terribly hard,whereas Frank seems a solid,calm,simple and stubborn man that knows he will have to work very hard to achieve the goals that already shine in the future of his younger brother."After all,Andy’s always been a big angel",Frank says with a smile."I immediately realised that he was stronger than me,a rider understands it if another cyclist still has something to give when all the other guys are already riding at full gas or are very tired.I immediately saw his talent and,even if I made a lot of promises to my father,I never managed to keep him in check.I’m always afraid that he can fall and get hurt.And I don't envy him at all,he's my brother! Perhaps having him at my side gives me even more motivation.Of course I’ve got lots of personal dreams as well.This year for example I’d like to win the Liége,the Lombardy and arrive on the Tour podium.I want to fight for my dreams and so,even if they won’t come true,I won’t have any regret,because I’ll know that I did everything I could to make them become reality“.
Although he can speak Italian well,Frank prefers to give interviews in English because he feels more confident when he speaks that language.His English is fluent and he talks in a calm and harmonic way.The armchair slowly becomes a confessional and you realise that all the miles he rode during the winter and during the races have allowed him to reflect on lots of things.He watches you in a serene and direct way,he often smiles and he faces every topic in a relaxed way.He remains calm even when we tell him that,after Riis’ confession in 2007,his team risked to fail.
“What happened with Riis has been shock",he admits,"but we rallied all together and we started to talk.What should have we done? There were some people who were really happy because they thought that Csc Team was going to disappear.We heard them as well,but what could have we done with them? Actually,at that point we did the only thing that true men do when they have to face hard moments.We watched each other in the eyes.We called Bjarne and we asked him what was going on.He told us his story and,all together,we decided to go on.Being filled with indignancy or turning our backs on Bjarne would have been a very hypocrite thing to do.We were very united and managed to leave the past behind".
“We are the only ones that can leave problems behind,it is useless to wait for someone else to come and help us.Lots of people talk,but we’re the only team that has done something credible in the war against doping and in fact now lots of other teams are using our same methods.We’re out from the doping crisis because we accepted it.If we had let panic or emotions take over us,like lots of people in the cycling world do when some things happen,we wouldn’t have been here now. But behaving like that would have involved the destruction of years of hard work.Inside the team there are men and women who have a family,we couldn’t accept to see things end in this way,just because of a bad story that happened 12 years ago..."
(pic by BCullinan/Pez)
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