Speculation about the future of brothers Andy and Frank Schleck began this past Sunday when the news broke that Saxo Bank director sportif, Kim Andersen, would be leaving the team with immediate effect, which meant he would not take part in the Tour de France. Even more interesting was the fact that Andersen was leaving to join forces with Saxo Bank's former press officer Bryan Nygaard to build a ProTour team to be based in Luxembourg.
Nygaard recently left his post at the new British Team Sky, along with senior sports director Scott Sunderland, who was also once part of Riis' management team.
Rumors surfaced months ago when the Gazzetta dello Sport reported that Saxo Bank stars Andy and Frank Schleck were looking to part ways with Bjarne Riis in 2011. The newspaper named Marc Biver as the team manager and Andersen as the senior sports director. While the rumors have now been confirmed, the younger Schleck brother left the possibility open that he and his brother could stay put.
"There has been much speculation on my team next year, but all I can say is that there is no news about Frank and me, and I'm totally focused on my Tour de France," Biciclismo reported Andy as saying. "I have four options for next year: Bjarne [Riis], ride for the new team of Kim Andersen, and two others I cannot reveal," he said.
RadioShack is likely one of the teams showing interest in the pair of Luxembourg champions, while several other teams, including Belgium's biggest squads Quick Step and Omega Pharma-Lotto, are also looking to evolve into a force for the general classification.
"But today I am a rider for Saxo Bank and I'm focused on my performance in the Tour de France. I talked to Bjarne Riis at the Tour of Switzerland, and we will do it again, but we can not begin negotiations until there is a new sponsor."
Riis has been working on securing a title sponsor to replace Saxo Bank for 2011, and while rumors link American technology company Sungard to the Danish team, nothing has been confirmed.
Some doubts about Andersen and Nygaard's ability to build a ProTour calibre team for next year have been raised, but the pair shouldn't be underestimated. Although he has not spoken about his future in cycling after stepping aside from Team Sky for family reasons, it's conceivable that there could be a future involvement for Sunderland. He has taken on that task twice in as many years with Cervelo TestTeam and Team Sky, and done it impressively in both instances. He may be reluctant to take on that workload again, especially as his son is ill, but if he does, working again with the Schleck brothers would surely be a draw for him.
Either way, Riis is confident he'll be okay with a team missing two of his stars. "It's not fun, but I've been in worse positions before. I have the plan that I need have [to continue to be successful]. I know what I need to do, but that is not something I want to share with others," Riis told BT today.