Trek have continued their gradual announcement of their Tour de France team by revealing the identity of the seventh and eigth riders on their roster. As expected, Frank Schleck has been selected and will make his return to the race after being taken out of the 2012 edition after delivering a positive doping test while Andy has earned a spot despite struggling with his form for several years.
Yesterday Trek named the first six riders in their Tour team. A lot of attention surrounded the fact that none of the Schleck brothers were selected yet.
The team has often made it clear that Andy needs to prove himself to get a spot on the roster while it has always been expected that Frank will get the nod. Today the team has confirmed that the both will indeed be at the start in Leeds.
Frank Schleck crashed out of the recent Tour de Suisse but showed solid condition in the Tour de Luxembourg. Having served his suspension for a positive doping test, the Luxembourger has had a solid comeback year but a lot of bad luck has prevented him from obtaining any big results. However, he was one of the key animators of the Criterium International which proved that he can still be up there with the best.
Since his crash at the 2012 Criterium du Dauphiné, Andy has been searching for his best form but last year he managed to get to a reasonable level for the Tour, finishing the race in 20th. This year he has again been struggling a lot but showed signs of improvement in the recent Tour de Suisse.
Frank Schleck and Haimar Zubeldia are expected to focus on the GC for the American team while there have been different signals about the goals for Andy Schleck. At one point, the team said that stage wins would be the objective but recently they said that the GC would be a focus.
With 8 spots now occupied, there are only room for one more rider. Jens Voigt hasn't been named yet.
The first six riders to be named were Fabian Cancellara, Zubeldia, Markel Irizar, Matthew Busche, Danny Van Poppel and Gregory Rast.
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