New Team Leopard-Trek unveiled

12 comments
By AFP & Cyclingnews | Friday, Jan 7, 2011 10.15am

The Schleck brothers have ended months of speculation about their Luxembourg Pro Cycling Project with the unveiling of the new Team Leopard-Trek.

The 25-man squad will be led by Andy Schleck, backed up by the likes of brother Fränk as well as Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland, Australia's Stuart O'Grady and German rider Jens Voigt.

They'll ride Trek Madone 6.9 SSL and Speed Concept 9 Series bikes decked out with Shimano's Dura-Ace Di2 electronic groupset and wheels and components from Trek's in-house brand Bontrager. The team jersey is white with a light blue stripe and black shoulders, and this colour scheme is continued on the bikes.

Team leopard-trek on show at yesterday's team presentation in luxembourg:

Team Leopard-Trek on show at yesterday's team presentation in Luxembourg

Andy Schleck hopes the new team can power him to a first Tour de France triumph after two successive, heartbreaking runner-up finishes to Spain's Alberto Contador. "I'll be surrounded by a good team and I've progressed well," he said. "I've finished second on the Tour twice and I'm going to do everything I can to win, but you can't just ask for it. You can't win the Tour without a team which is 100 percent behind you."

Contador may not be a factor at the 2011 Tour de France after he was provisionally suspended in September when trace amounts of the banned substance clenbuterol were found in a urine sample taken during last year's event. "Whether he races in 2011 or not will not reduce the pressure on me. I'll be the favourite and the expectations will be on me," said Schleck.

For comprehensive coverage of the Team Leopard-Trek launch, visit our sister site, Cyclingnews. You can check out two videos about the new team and their bikes below:

Leopard-Trek: Fast, faster, fastest

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Building the Leopard-Trek 6 Series Madone

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User Comments

There are 12 comments on this post

Showing 1 - 12 of 12 comments

  • Have they also got a Trek time machine? That group shot does appear to have a 20 year old Jan Ullrich in the squad. Let's hope that he makes a better go of it this year.

    Not a bad kit but not very exciting either. Best of luck to them.

  • Very nice looking bike. Hope Trek sell that as an option.

  • @bikandy61, I gather they're riding SpeedConcept TT bikes.

    Kit looks very nice, bike less so, but then again that's Trek for you.

    Surprised to hear Andy sees himself as TdF favourite, with or without Bertie.

  • Boring.

    A clear opportunity for animal print, but no... even more disappointing than Sky's 'rainforest' bikes - not a parrot in sight

  • I can't imagine why they haven't gone with SRAM Red...

  • So where does the 'Leopard' name come from? Is it the national animal of Luxembourg?

  • It's the name of team manager Brian Nygaard's management company.

  • Quite a few teams wearing blacks this season... Sky, Garmin-Cervelo, Leopard... how dull! :-(

  • "I can't imagine why they haven't gone with SRAM Red... "

    +1, had to explain to the wife why I was laughing so hard. :-))

  • too bad SPECIALIZED decided to back contador. TREK outmaneuvered them again, as the schlecks figure to be the better investment.

    too bad since i think SPECIALIZED make better bikes than DREK.

  • ah so a rider high on GC gets a new team so he can triumph in the TDF.

    Sorry mate. it didnt work for Brad Wiggins and SKY last year. lets hope Andy can pull it off.

  • @darth_geekboy

    Hi there. Are you talking about from a manufacturing perspective, or aesthetics?

    Aluminium bikes are good or bad based on welds, but carbon is a different beast altogether. I'd be happy to explain our carbon process, if it helps. It's at least noteworthy that our carbon process is our own in-house brand. It does make a huge difference when you start cutting frames in half to see what they look like on the inside. Quite shocking to see voids, filler materials, metal inserts, and gaps where they shouldn't be.

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