Looking back at the year 2005 (part II):

2005 has been an exceptionnal year for Luxemburgish high-level cycling. 12 months after the creation of the very discussed Pro-Tour, gathering the best teams of the cycling planet, Luxembourg appears indeed in eighth position in these new world rankings, in front of countries like France, Russia or Switzerland. It is clear that this great achievement was acquired at the end of the season, thanks to the victory of Kim Kirchen in the Tour of Poland and the two performances of Frank Schleck at the Züri-Metzgete and the Giro di Lombardia. But in addition to these largely reported results, there were lots of other high performances throughout the year, by Kim and Frank, but also on behalf of Andy Schleck, the new member at ACC Contern whom, at just 20 years of age, did not solely show strong physical abilities, but also a pleasent offensive behaviour. The least to be said is that our three riders are already in great shape at the beginning of the season. Photos: cyclingnews.com Whereas Andy Schleck manages to follow the best in his first test at Etoile de Bessèges, and his brother Frank does already a top 10 classification there, the first big strikes occur at the Tour Méditéranéen. Frank Schleck misses a victory in front of Kim Kirchen only by a few centimeters at the 2nd stage in Bormes-the-Mimosas, but Philippe Gilbert comes around them at the very end. The following day, on the climb of Mont Faron near Toulon, Schleck and Kirchen manage very well to limit the damage (4th respectively 8th) and the team-time-trial dominated by the CSC squad allows Frank to take over second place in the general classification. Behind his team-mate Jens Voigt, the Luxembourger manages to defend this position until the end and also wins the classification of the best young rider. Photo: Fassa Bortolo After that, Kim Kirchen brillantly wins the opening race of the Italian professionnal calendar, the Trofeo Laigueglia by easily beating his three breakaway companions Pellizotti, Frigo and Tiralonga in a sprint. A few days later, the champion of Luxembourg strikes again by carrying out this time the Gran-Premio Città di Chiasso, once again in a sprint of a lead group. What a beginning for the season! In Paris-Nice disturbed by the bad weather, Schleck sacrifices himself for the teamwork at CSC and the final winner Bobby Julich but Photos: Fassa Bortolo/cyclingnews.com finish nevertheless in a brilliant 7th place at the overall classification, while Kirchen's performances are a little bit lower than in the previous year (a third place in the last stage and a day in the best climber's jersey). But the Fassa Bortolo rider sits on top again at Milan-San Remo won by his team-mate Petacchi with an extraordinary ascent of the Poggio and especially in the Settimana Coppi e Bartoli, where he wins the queen stage in Serramazzoni in spite of multiple accelerations of Damiano Cunego on the final climb. During this time, Andy Schleck quietly follows his way with for example a 12th place in Rund um Köln. The Ardennes classics are one of the major goals of the season for Kim Kirchen. Photos: cyclingnews.com And the Fassa Bortolo rider starts the campaign very well since he emerges from the fog in the lead group at the Amstel Gold Race and takes 11th place on top of the Cauberg. The ambitions are thus high at the departure of the Flèche Wallonne, a tailormade race for him with the finish on top of the very steep Mur of Huy. Once more and despite all the efforts of Jens Voigt, the race is decided on the final climb where Kim Kirchen is the first to make a move with 200 meters to go. With a powerful acceleration, he creates a gap and Italian rider Danilo Di Luca is the only one able to catch up and come around him: second place in Huy. 4 days later, Kirchen is also in the blow until the côte de St Nicolas at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but on that day, there isn't anything to do against the fantastic duo Voigt-Vinokourov. Frank Schleck also takes part in the Ardennes classics, but these races come at a bad time in his shedule, just after a small cut to fill up the tanks. The junior of the Schleck brothers, on his side, leaves towards America for the Tour de Georgia, where he is on the attack in several stages. A 15th place overall, a 4th in the best climber classification the place of 3rd best young rider are his rewards. The period of the stage races in May starts calmly. Kim Kirchen takes a rest for the month after a busy spring, whereas Frank Schleck prepares to take part at the Tour of Italy later in the month. It is rather Andy Schleck who is in the spotlights at the Photos: cyclingnews.com beginning of May in the 4 days of Dunkerque. In the superb landscape of the 2 capes in Pas-de-Calais, he is one of the strongest in the 3rd stage, belonging to a group of 5 riders which crosses the uphill finishing line a few seconds after Thomas Voeckler. After his fourth place of the day, Schleck maintains himself in good position in the following stages and finishes the race in 9th position overall, 26 seconds only behind Frenchman Fedrigo. A few days later, the young rider makes a painful experiance in the high mountains in the difficult Volta a Catalunya which he finishes exhausted. Photos: grahamwatson.com His brother Frank is at the start of the Giro d'Italia with only one goal: the final victory for his team-mate Ivan Basso. During the entire race, he is devoted to the team tactics, when everything works out well (pink jersey for CSC captain after the 11th stage or the very valuable contribution of Frank to the stage victory of Basso in Limone Piemonte) as well as when things go bad (stomach disease for the Italian and the very difficult day of Livigno). On the personal level of Schleck, one can retain the fifth place in Varazze, where he belongs to a long break as well as a nice performance at the second time-trial (18th). In June, Kim Kirchen resumes competition at the Tour de Luxembourg, Photos: cyclingfx-nl cyclingnews.com but has problems finding his rythm again after a month's break (3rd place in Luxembourg-city and 5th in the Bettembourg time-trial), while Andy Schleck continues to progress in the Ster Elektrotoer run along the Belgian and Dutch border. A sixth place in Valkenburg on an Amstel-Gold-Race-like course and on 8th place in the Ardennes the following day are at his credit. The Tour de Suisse is one of the biggest goals for Frank Schleck who competes there as leader of the CSC squad, whereas Kim Kirchen uses the race as preparation for the Tour de France. In the mountains, Frank confirms his climbing skills: not only is he able to remain with the best as in Arosa (13th in the stage, he removes up to 4th place in the general classification), but he also makes his own moves as in the last stage of Ulrichen, where he attacks on several occasions behind the leader Aitor Gonzalez. The Luxembourger puts the pressure on the yellow jersey Rogers and on Jan Ullrich in person, finally takes second place of the stage and fails to take a step of the podium for a few seconds only. At the National Championships, our three competitors work perfectly, since Andy Schleck takes the time-trial title and the three riders of ACC Contern make one-two-three in the road race where Frank Schleck beats Kim Kirchen by a few seconds for the victory and Andy Schleck holds off Benoît Joachim for the bronze medal The Tour de France begins rather well for Kim Kirchen, who is the only one of the three riders to take part in the "Grande Boucle", his major goal for the season. He doesn't lose too much time in the first stages and a 6th place behind his team-mate Bernucci in the stage of Nancy and then an excellent 4th place on the first day in the Vosges show his ambitions. The Luxembourger shows even astonishing climbing skills and finishes the following mountain stages with the best, so that he finds himself 20th overall after the first day in the Alps. Everything seems to go all right. However, the following day, in the terrible stage towards Briançon with Madeleine and Galibier, the dream is over. A pain in the back wakes up and Kim has problems to pedal correctly. He is dropped by the main group and then even by the Gruppetto. Without forces, the Fassa Bortolo rider puts his feet down in the col du Télégraph and finishes the stage in the team car: the Tour de France 2005 is finished for him. It is the first real bad blow in the career of Kim Kirchen, who needs several days to recover from it. But two weeks later, he is already sharp again in the Hamburg cyclassics, where he misses the good break by a few meters only in the very tough Waseberg . Photos: hervis-tour.at / trworg.be During this time, Andy Schleck does very well at the Tour of Austria. whose profile suits him perfectly. The Luxembourger rides aggressively, Photos: cyclingpictures.de ard.de finds himself in the lead several times during the stages and realizes also some nice results, like in the uphill time-trial where he finishes 16th on top of the terrible Kitzbüheler Horn. The Schleck brothers, absent from the Tour de France, also participate in the Tour de la Régionne Wallonne, where Andy finishes the hilly stages with the best, but Frank has to abandon due to a problem with his tendon. The bad luck continues at the Benelux-tour, where Kim Kirchen goes to the ground during the 4th stage. The bad crash causes him heavy pain in his hip, forcing him to abandon on the next day and to cancel his participation at the Gala Tour de France and the Tour of Germany. Frank Schleck is devoted to the team-tactics at the Benelux-Tour where he is rewarded by an overall victory for Bobby Julich and is sick at the Deutschland-tour, a race that where he wanted to do well. Despite his illness, Frank continues and a 13th place on top of the Feldberg towards the end of the race shows that he is getting healthier again. The Schleck brothers also participate in August at the Gala Tour de France in Luxemburg, where both of them manage to take a podium spot (Frank in the criterium and Andy in the time-trial). The end of the season is already announced and both Kim Kirchen and Frank Schleck want to do very well after the disappointments of the summer. Photos: bettiniphoto.net cyclingnews.com radiocontact.be Kirchen is the first to be in the spotlights again at the Coppa Placci in Italy, where he takes the second place only a few centimeters behind Paolo Vanotti in the sprint of a lead group of 27 riders. Andy Schleck participates in the Tour de l'Avenir, his big goal of the season, and he does already well in the first stage with a 5th place behind his team-mate Lars Bak, after having been one of the most active riders. Unfortunately, after a bad performance under tremendous heat in the third stage, he loses a quarter of an hour and all his chances for a good overall result. From now on, Andy is devoted to the team-tactics and Lars Bak, who is attacked several times on the last hilly stages, has to rely on him to pass a few critical moments. Thanks to the help of his young team-mate, the Danish rider wins the Tour de l'Avenir 2005. Both Bak and Schleck are also in the blow at the Grand-prix de Wallonie where the Photos: bikeworld.pl Danish champ is in the lead for the whole day and the Luxembourger is among the strongest on the final ascent of the Citadelle de Namur. Opposed to riders like Nuyens or Arvesen, Andy realizes maybe his most impressive performance of the year with a 7th place. Next to come is the Tour of Poland with Frank Schleck, Kim Kirchen and a sprint festival on the first stages. On the hillier stages, Liquigas and Rabobank take control of the race, but the troublemaker is named Kim Kirchen. After a 5th place behind Wegmann and a second behind Pieter Weening, he is in ideal position overall just 4 seconds behind the young Dutchman. On the last day, Kim realizes a perfect race in the morning, where he overtakes everybody on the last steep climb to win in front of Pro-Tour Leader Di Luca and take the yellow jersey at the same occasion. In the afternoon time-trial, Kirchen manages to hold the chasers at distance and eventually becomes the first Luxembourger to win a Pro-Tour event. At the same time, the Fassa Bortolo rider also wins the points classification. Frank Schleck, on his side, finishes the race in 27th position after having had 4 punctures and lost more than half an hour on the 6th stage. After that, the ambitions are naturally very high at the World Championships in Madrid where Photos: radsport.ch / cyclingnews.com Kim Kichen is the only representative of Luxembourg, following the new and very unfair rules of the UCI. But he has a bad day and finishes only in 122nd position. Frank Schleck is taking profit from his non-selection to prepare seriously the last automn classics because for him, the most beautiful race is the "race of the falling leaves". But it is at the Zuri-Metzgete where he strikes first with a second place. Behind a flying Paolo Bettini, in the lead with over 3 minutes of advantage, Schleck makes a move on the last climb, drops Cunego and Di Luca, catches all the previous break companions of Bettini before beating Lorenzo Bernucci for second place on the line under dramatic weather conditions. A week later, at the Giro dell'Emilia, the Luxemburgish champion is once again very strong and only Gilberto Simoni, who has also specially prepared the automn classics, is able to beat him. Photos: radsport.ch / cyclingnews.com Simoni and Celestino are the only ones to follow an acceleration of Frank Schleck on the penultimate climb to San Lucca. Then, on the last ascent of this wall (18 %), the Lampre-rider makes his move and creates a gap of 50 m which Schleck isn't able to close until the finish. In this race, Andy Schleck has done a great job by towing his brother up to the lead group before the last laps. The last race of the season is the Giro di Lombardia where the Schleck brothers have big ambitions in front of a delegation of their fan club. Andy does a perfect job and helps Frank to be in ideal position when the final begins. On the very tough Ghisallo, Paolo Bettini attacks and the red-white-blue jersey jumps into his wheel, together with Simoni, Sastre and Caruso. This is the good break and on the last climb, the San Fermo di Battaglia, Bettini, Simoni and Schleck attack one after the other. But no-one is able to get a real gap and the victory is decided in a sprint where Frank Schleck takes third place. This is the third podium spot for him within two weeks. What a fantastic end for an fantastic season! Retrospective 2005 (part I)