The potential Tour de France powerhouse team of Andy and Frank Schleck continues to gain shape.
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.