The brothers added a French climbing master and Tour stage winner, Brice Feillu, came aboard the team — called the Luxembourg Pro Cycling Project — to assist in mountain stages. Australia’s Will Clarke and Austrian Stefan Denifl also made the switch.

Team Luxembourg also snagged name star Stuart O’Grady this week, joining Jens Voigt on the roster of riders known as supreme team players as well as individual standouts. Both O’Grady and Voigt also have the respect of the peloton, especially Voigt after his stirring comeback from a devastating (and some thought career-ending) face plant on a screaming downhill in the 2009 Tour.

And there’s more: Italian sprint specialist Daniele Bennati gives the team added dimension on flat stages, which will be given an additional huge boost when the locomotive-like Fabian Cancellara meets expectations of joining the Schleck enterprise.

Andy Schleck finished second in this year’s Tour by a mere 38 seconds and may be awarded the crown if winner Alberto Contador’s provisional suspension for doping is made permanent.

More from BicycleNet.

Not much is known about the substance, clenbuterol, and Contador reportedly contends that food contamination is the only possible source.

Reaction is low key so far.

If Contador is found in violation and stripped of his Tour title, it hopefully will go to Andy Schleck, who deserved the overall win anyway.

Bikejuju was at Burning Man! Took photos!

A good idea: The Washington High School Cycling League.

What happens when your bike throws a chain, costing you victory in the Tour de France as well as millions of dollars in endorsements? First of all, you change bike companies.

Oops. That’s undoubtedly what they told the cyclist who pedaled up to an estate sale, parked his bike, went to look over merchandise and returned to find his $1,000 bike had been sold… for $5!

Plans for the Issaquah Bicycle Club continue moving ahead.

Never suspended for drinking.

Team director Bjarne Riis, who has acknowledged winning the Tour de France in 1996 while doping fer cryin’ out loud, must want to set a squeaky-clean agenda for Saxo next season. We’ve never heard of an elite pro rider being sent home for having a nip after dinner, but it’s probably there in the Saxo Guide to Inappropriate Behavior somewhere.

In any case, Riis hasn’t been happy with Andy and brother Frank since they announced they were leaving to form a new Luxembourg team (their home country) right before the Tour de France. Riis was, however, gracious enough to say Andy’s disciplining “had nothing to do” with doping. Just in case some members of the cycling public don’t know the difference between Tanqueray and testosterone.

No word on what Andy’s poison was, but — recalling W.C. Fields’ great line, “Who put orange juice in my orange juice?” — we hope it was something more, uh, invigorating than a Budweiser.

You'll be seeing him in yellow...

Andrew Hood of VeloNews speculates on who may follow the Schlecks and Contador to their new teams.

The win gave the world’s fastest human on two wheels his fourth win in this Tour and 14th stage win in the Tour overall. The gap between Cavendish and No. 2 Julian Dean, a teammate of Wenatchee’s Tyler Farrar, made it look like the peloton was coasting. The overhead shot is pretty amazing as Cavendish bullets off the front.

We’ll try to get film at 11.

Otherwise the general classification stayed the same, with Alberto Contador retaining the yellow jersey by a scant 8 seconds over Andy Schleck. Tomorrow’s 32-mile time trial will provide the race’s real climax, either confirming Contador’s right to this year’s trophy or fueling a debate likely to last for the ages over whether he should have waited for Schleck on Stage 15.

Schleck simply could not shake Contador, who sucked wheel for kilometer after kilometer. That’s all he had to do, and it was not the way a champion wins a Tour. But Contador did not look like he had the kick to drop Schleck — he tried once, without success — so shadowing was the only realistic alternative.

If all goes according to expectations, Contador will win the 97th Tour de France in Paris on Sunday. Schleck will probably be second, although the day-before time trial could press him.

In any case, Andy can be congratulated for leaving it all on the pave this year.

As for Contador, the squeaky-voiced Spaniard remains a question-mark in the charisma department. Today’s ride proves that he will deserve the title, but only if he increases his 8-second lead during Saturday’s time trial. Psychologically, he will have to win the Tour by at least 40 seconds to erase the stain of Stage 15′s attack while Schleck was disabled by a thrown chain. (You can make the case, in fact, that Contador will have to win by at least a minute, due to the overall down time Schleck suffered.)

Today’s bottom line: Andy pushed, Contador followed. For the former, it was heroism. For the latter, it was classic Tour strategy. Each racer both won and lost today, but in different ways.

Schleck may not win the Tour, but he’s won the world cycling community’s heart. Ultimately, that may count for more.

Full report from Cyclingnews.com.

French national champion Thomas Voeckler brought home another stage win for the home country in this year’s Tour, riding off the front of a 10-minute breakaway up the final shark-tooth climb.

But the tragedy of the day, and perhaps the Tour, came when Schleck, just starting to put the hammer down on Alberto Contador, threw his chain and almost front-kicked over the bars. It wasn’t clear exactly what happened — we’re guessing a slack cable left him just enough between gears to throw the chain when Andy put down pressure hard — but by the time Schleck dismounted and got things going again, Contador was nearly 20 seconds up the road. [UPDATE: VeloNews speculates on possible causes for Schleck's lost chain.]

Benefiting not just from Schleck’s misfortune but the downhilling skills of Sammy Sanchez and a small group of race leaders, Contador finished 8 seconds in the lead, taking 39 seconds from Schleck on the day.

So the debate of the day — and perhaps of the 2010 Tour de France — will be whether Contador should have waited, as is the prerogative of any racer. Waiting is not required by the rules, but has been done in the past as a matter of courtesy and “champion etiquette.” (In 2003 Jan Ullrich waited for Lance Armstrong.)

“My stomach is full of anger, I want to take my revenge,” Schleck told Versus TV after the stage. He acknowledged, “It’s not to me to decide” whether it was fair for Contador to keep riding on, but did add: “It was not something I would do.”

Andy can take comfort in one thing: Contador obviously is scared. If the two-time Tour champion was confident, he would never have ridden away.

One new wrinkle we did get a chuckle out of: Versus is running a commercial where Schleck and Contador get into a playground snit, “Did so, did not!” for Specialized. You can barely understand what they’re saying (both speak in thick accents) but the point is made. Glad to see this comic relief from the “Gladiator” nature of the blow-by-blow commentary.

Although maybe given today’s grim turn of events, the repartee should be, “Should’ve waited!” “Should not!”

UPDATES

Pro-Contador Bikehugger gets plenty of pushback.

VeloNews reports on Lance Armstrong and other pros’ reactions.

CyclingNews full report on Stage 15.

Our man Andy looked comfortable up most of the Côte de la Croix-Neuve, with grades reaching 14 percent and averaging out at more than 10 percent, till Contador breezily broke away and put on the big hurt. We were disappointed not to see Andy respond, but he knew he would keep the yellow jersey and may be playing a tactical game as well.

Another Spaniard — they seem to be everywhere this year — Joaquim Rodriguez, took the stage win with a final sprint against Contador. Schleck finished 10 seconds behind.

Not much of a shakeup in the leaders, with Levi Leipheimer remaining in 6th (more than 4 minutes behind) as the highest-placed American. Lance Armstrong continues to fade, finishing more than three and a half minutes out today.

Full report from CyclingNews.com.

Veteran French rider Sandy Casar took the stage win in a bunch sprint after the breakaway he helped lead for much of the stage was caught by the explosive team of Schleck, Contador and Christophe Moreau. But it was the head-to-head action up Madeleine that provided the day’s most impressive strategy and action.

Schleck looks stronger to our big-screen eyes, but that may not be enough as Contador is a better time-trialist, which could give him the edge heading into Paris.

But that’s a long way off.

Right now the two have turned the Tour de France, which started with nearly 200 riders, into a two-man race. Andy leads, but by a scant 41 seconds — not enough to give him a clear edge.

MIA in today’s stage were a host of contenders, notably Evans in the yellow jersey. As Lance Armstrong did Sunday, Cadel (who also crashed badly Sunday) rode to survive, losing a massive 8 minutes to the race leaders and falling well off the pace in the overall classification.

We also expected more of a challenge from Ivan Basso, winner of this year’s Giro; Dennis Menchov, always a threat in climbing stages; and Alexander Vinokourov, Contador’s teammate but a gifted climber as well.

As for American hopes, with Armstrong’s fall they now rest on the capable but probably not yellow-ready shoulders of Levi Leipheimer, who finished 10th, more than 2 minutes behind. Levi is sixth overall, nearly 4 minutes out of the lead.

And Sammy Sanchez. the Olympic road champion, continues to show as a possible sleeper in this year’s Tour. He cracked on the descent — unusually so, since he’s an able downhiller — but is showing some chops in the mountain stages.

Watching the fast and switchbacky descent from Madeleine, we were reminded once again (as in this year’s Giro d’Italia) how inefficiently road racers tend to descend. Not that it typically matters, given the dynamics of stage racing, but a powerful and graceful descent is to our minds as thrilling as a faceoff on the ups.

Another punishing Alps stage — the Tour’s last — awaits the riders tomorrow.