By Unbroken | In conversation with Andy Schleck, Deputy General Manager at Lidl-Trek, on leadership, culture, long-term ambition, and why recovery is one of the biggest remaining performance levers in modern cycling.

In elite cycling, success is often explained through numbers: watts, race schedules, altitude blocks, nutrition plans, and marginal gains measured in fractions. But inside the sport, the bigger picture is always more complex. Winning is not only about how strong a rider is. It is about what kind of environment surrounds that rider, how well a team functions under pressure, and whether the system is built to repeat performance day after day across an unforgiving season.

Few people understand that reality from as many angles as Andy Schleck.

As a former Tour de France winner, Schleck knows what it means to carry the yellow jersey and live with the pressure that comes with it. Since stepping away from racing, he has developed a broader perspective on the sport through work with teams, cycling retail, and major events in Luxembourg. Those experiences exposed him to aspects of performance and team management that riders rarely see while still competing. Now, as Deputy General Manager at Lidl-Trek, Schleck returns to the sport with a wider mandate: helping shape a team capable of winning at the highest level while also building a culture that fans, partners, and riders can believe in.

For Schleck, the challenge is about far more than tactics or talent acquisition. It is about leadership, identity, and creating a system where performance can keep improving - not only through training, but through stronger habits, better recovery, and alignment across every part of the team.

Returning to the team with a broader perspective

Schleck describes his return to the team as something deeply personal, but not impulsive. His relationship with cycling never truly disappeared after retirement. Instead, it evolved. After stepping away from professional racing in 2015, he deliberately created distance from the sport for a time before gradually re-engaging through business and event initiatives in Luxembourg. Through those projects, he began to understand parts of cycling he had never experienced as a rider.

That perspective matters now. As an athlete, he knew what it took to win the Tour de France. But the years following retirement gave him a deeper appreciation for the structures and systems that support elite performance behind the scenes. He learned how teams operate, how organizations grow, and how long-term performance strategies are built.

Those lessons shaped how he approached the opportunity to return to Lidl-Trek. As he explains it, this was not a decision taken lightly. Taking on the role meant stepping away from other professional commitments and dedicating significant time and energy to the project. The motivation was simple: helping guide Lidl-Trek into the next phase of its development as a team capable of competing for the biggest prizes in the sport.

More than a winning team

When Schleck talks about ambition, he is clear. Lidl-Trek wants to win the biggest races in cycling. That includes the Tour de France, the monuments, and consistent success across the calendar.

Yet what stands out in his perspective is that he does not define success purely through results. He wants Lidl-Trek to become a team people recognize and connect with - not only because of victories, but because of the way the team represents the sport.

In his words, the goal is to become "a team for the people out there." That includes the spectators lining the roadside, the fans watching from home, the supporters wearing team jerseys, and even the thousands of Lidl employees around the world who develop a connection to the sport through the team.

Cycling, after all, is a sport built on passion and proximity. Riders compete in front of millions of fans without stadium walls separating them from the public. Schleck believes that connection is something teams must embrace and nurture. In that sense, a modern WorldTour team is not just a competitive machine - it is also a public identity.

Leadership is not just taking the front

Schleck’s philosophy of leadership reflects that same mindset. For him, leadership is not simply about authority or decision-making power. Instead, it is about responsibility.

He often explains that leadership is not necessarily about taking the lead in every situation. It is about taking care of the people you lead. In practice, that means helping riders and staff function better together, especially under pressure.

This philosophy influences how he thinks about building a team. When he speaks about recruitment, he refers to riders and staff alike as "people." Talent and performance metrics matter, but mindset matters just as much. The question is whether individuals have the mentality required to thrive within a collective performance environment.

Teams evolve constantly. Riders come and go, roles shift, and leadership structures adapt over time. What matters is whether the culture of teamwork remains strong, especially when the stakes are highest.

What the yellow jersey teaches you

Schleck’s experience as a Tour de France winner gives him a unique understanding of the pressures riders face at the very top of the sport.

From the outside, wearing the yellow jersey looks glamorous. On television, it shines as a symbol of victory. But from the inside, it carries a different reality. Suddenly the rider becomes the center of attention - from the media, sponsors, fans, and competitors.

"You suddenly have all the attention," Schleck explains.

That pressure can reveal challenges riders never expected. The expectations of others, the weight of responsibility to teammates, and the mental demands of leading the biggest race in cycling can all affect performance.

Having experienced that himself, Schleck believes his perspective helps him support riders navigating similar situations. His role now is not only to guide strategy, but also to help create the conditions in which athletes can perform without being overwhelmed by the pressures that accompany success.

The culture question: passion before contract

One theme that repeatedly emerges in Schleck’s thinking about cycling is passion. Professional riders, of course, have contracts and financial considerations. Their careers are short, and they must plan for life beyond competition.

But in Schleck’s view, money alone cannot motivate greatness in a sport as demanding as cycling.

"The Tour de France is too hard to win with money," he says. "You need passion."

That belief shapes how he thinks about developing young riders. Many athletes entering the sport today grow up in a global sports culture dominated by transfer fees, contracts, and salaries. Cycling, however, operates differently. It demands resilience, endurance, and an extraordinary willingness to suffer for long-term goals.

To succeed at the highest level, riders must possess a deeper motivation - one that goes beyond financial rewards. Passion, in Schleck’s view, is the fuel that allows athletes to push beyond their perceived limits.

Performance is still evolving - and recovery is central to that

Although passion drives the sport, science continues to shape how athletes perform. Schleck is quick to acknowledge that he is not the one conducting laboratory research or analyzing every variable. His role is focused on performance outcomes.

And in that conversation, one theme appears repeatedly: recovery.

Modern cycling, he believes, has not changed as dramatically in training philosophy as some might assume. Riders have always pushed extreme workloads. What has evolved significantly is the understanding of how to support recovery between those efforts.

"If you can recover better and faster, you can train more. And if you can train more, performance improves."

Better recovery allows riders to absorb greater training loads, repeat high-intensity efforts more frequently, and maintain performance across demanding race schedules. It is one of the most direct ways to improve results without increasing physical risk.

Nutrition, sleep monitoring, and recovery strategies have become increasingly sophisticated. Years ago, teams understood that carbohydrates and protein mattered, but the level of precision was limited. Today, recovery science has become far more individualized and data-driven.

That evolution, Schleck believes, still offers opportunities for improvement.

Why Unbroken earned his attention

Through his cycling shops and reputation in the sport, Schleck is constantly introduced to new nutrition and recovery products. Most of them do not leave a lasting impression.

"With the shops and my name in the sport, people come in all the time and say, 'Try this,'" he explains.

Unbroken caught his attention because it raised a simple question: could it address something still missing in recovery?

Curious, he decided to test it himself. Although he is no longer a professional rider, his training routine remains demanding. CrossFit, running, and Hyrox sessions regularly push his body into heavy fatigue.

After starting Unbroken, he noticed improvements in how he felt. Muscle soreness decreased, sleep improved, and recovery between workouts felt smoother.

But what truly convinced him was that the change appeared not only in how he felt, but also in measurable recovery data. Over time, his sleep and recovery tracking reflected stronger overnight recovery when he used the product.

"It wasn't just a feeling," he says. "The data was there."

That combination - feeling the benefit while seeing it reflected in recovery metrics - made him take the product seriously.

At that point, he brought Unbroken to the Lidl-Trek performance staff through Dr. Jens. Jens first wanted to understand the science and research behind the formulation before considering it for team use. After reviewing the studies, he began testing the product himself with cyclists and also with athletes he was working with in the German army.

According to Schleck, the results were consistent across those tests: recovery improved.

From there, the team began purchasing Unbroken so riders could start using it regularly. Over time, feedback from athletes reinforced what the early testing suggested.

Schleck eventually began exploring whether a partnership might make sense.

He went on to explore whether a partnership might be possible because, in his view, Unbroken is the best recovery supplement out there - not simply because of the formulation itself, but because athletes feel the benefit in real time and can often see it reflected in their recovery data as well.

Where it fits inside a WorldTour environment

Inside a professional cycling team, recovery is everything. During stage races and intense training blocks, riders must repeat extreme physical efforts day after day with limited recovery windows.

Schleck describes Unbroken’s role simply: helping shorten that recovery time.

"Recovery is one of the biggest themes in cycling. If you shorten the recovery time, riders can take more load - and more load means better performance."

If athletes recover faster, they can handle more work. If they handle more work, they become stronger competitors across an entire season.

In high-performance environments, these improvements often appear small individually but become powerful when repeated consistently across a team.

Real Time Recovery and the one-percent principle

Schleck often speaks about marginal gains, but he frames them in practical terms. 
"We're looking for one percent," he says. At the highest level of cycling, the gap between the best riders in the world is incredibly small. Teams rarely need dramatic performance breakthroughs. Instead, small improvements across multiple areas - training, recovery, nutrition, equipment - can collectively determine outcomes.

"In elite cycling, one percent can make the difference. Recovery is one of the places where you can still find it."

In this context, Schleck views Unbroken as one of the tools contributing to those incremental improvements.

Building for 2028 and beyond

Schleck is clear that the current project at Lidl-Trek is long-term. His focus is not only on immediate results but on building systems that sustain performance over years.

One of the ambitions he speaks about most clearly is the goal of seeing Lidl-Trek achieve two yellow jerseys at the Tour de France - one for the men's team and one for the women's team. For Schleck, that vision reflects the full scope of what the organization is building.

Achieving that goal requires more than strong riders. It requires a culture, infrastructure, and performance environment designed for long-term success across both programs.

The process, he believes, is already underway.

Final thought: the hardest gains are often the most human

Despite the increasing role of technology and data in cycling, Schleck believes the most important gains remain human ones.

Passion. Trust. Team culture. Recovery.

These factors shape the environment in which athletes perform. When those elements align, performance follows.

For Schleck, leadership in modern cycling means bringing those pieces together - building not only stronger riders, but a stronger system around them. And if that system works, the results will come.

About Andy Schleck
Andy Schleck is Deputy General Manager at Lidl-Trek and a former professional cyclist from Luxembourg. Winner of the 2010 Tour de France, he now works at the intersection of leadership, performance, and team development, helping shape Lidl-Trek’s future both on and off the road.