Leopard Trek finished one-two on the Queen Stage of the 2011 Tour de France. Andy Schleck soloed to victory atop Galibier in a magnificent display of strength and defiance. Sixty kilometers from the mountaintop finish, Andy broke away from the other race favorites on Col d’Izoard and stayed away to the line.

“I like to have a plan,” said Andy. “I like it even more when it works out like this. This is by far the most beautiful win of my career. The team has done incredible work so far in the Tour, and I dedicate the victory to them.”

Two minutes behind, Fränk Schleck finished second after jumping from a group of four that included Cadel Evans (BMC), Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) and Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale). Fränk’s effort earned him seven seconds over Evans.

The time the Schlecks picked up today translated to real movement on the general classification. Andy’s brave move propelled him into second overall, 15 seconds outside the race lead. Fränk remains in third place, now 53 seconds behind his brother.

“I said before that I wanted to come alive on the Galibier,” Andy said. “We are in a perfect position for Alpe d’Huez. I’m second overall, and I’m ready to go again tomorrow. I will look for more opportunities to attack. I want to prolong the efforts from today and increase my time gap before the tough time trial on Saturday.”

The Queen Stage included three hors categorie climbs. Nineteen riders went clear shortly before the Col Angel, the first climb of the day. LEOPARD TREK placed two riders in the move with Joost Posthuma and Maxime Monfort doing the lion’s share of the work to ensure the break’s success.

“This morning on the bus, we decided on the tactics,” explained Posthuma. “We said we would send two riders in the breakaway. We wanted one good rouleur and one good climber, so we selected me and Maxime. The idea was that I would do work on the flatter parts and Maxime would carry Andy following the climb because we knew, straightaway, that we needed Andy to attack on the Izoard. We took up the pace before Angel to harden the race and ensure formation of the break.”

With teammates out front providing a morale boost, Andy attacked, as planned, on Izoard and, surprisingly, received no reaction from the field. The frontrunners had begun to split on the day’s second climb, and Andy powered passed the remnants of the break until he reached Posthuma. The Dutchman provided Andy with several minutes of relief through the Casse Desert before he forged ahead alone. By the time Andy crested the top of the second climb, he was the sixth rider on the road and had more than two minutes on the yellow jersey group.

“In cycling, you can make big plans, and that’s good. It’s how it should be,” noted Monfort. “In real life, several factors come into play that can disrupt intentions. It hardly ever happens that the race translates into the plan you have agreed to follow. Today we executed a near-perfect game.”

As planned, Monfort had backed off the pace on the descent to wait for his team captain. When Andy made contact with Monfort, the two zipped down the mountain together. Monfort offered his line and his draft as paced Andy down the entire descent and up the slopes of the Col du Lautaret. His efforts stretched the gap between Andy and the other race favorites to more than four minutes.

“Without Maxime, without this whole team, the victory today could not have been possible,” noted Andy. “Thanks to them, to Maxime above all, I took the stage win. Maxime allowed me to resist the hardest parts leading up to the Galibier and shielded me from the headwinds. He brought me to 17 kilometers from the finish.”

As Monfort fell off pace, fully spent and work completed, Andy forged ahead with Nicholas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale), Maxim Iglinskiy (Astana) and Egor Silin (Katusha) in his slipstream. The others would eventually fall off the blistering pace Andy set.

Behind, the chase began in earnest but lacked the organization and cooperation required to reduce the advantage. Only Evans was able and willing to commit to the chase and eventually succeeded in limiting his losses from four minutes to just over two minutes. With his brother out front, Fränk enjoyed the opportunity to conserve energy and follow wheels. Initially, he chose to mark Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank Sungard) who cracked inside the final two kilometers. Fränk only put his nose in the wind to surge in the final meters before the line.

“This is the message we want to send,” said Fränk. “This is who we are. This is how we race. I’m proud of myself, my brother and the entire team. They have put everything into making today happen.”

Not only did the Schleck brothers time gains on the overall, Andy also earned the most aggressive rider jersey for his bold attack.

“I went out this morning and said to myself, ‘No guts, no glory.’,” explained Andy. “I took the race by the horns and committed everything I had to the attack. I knew it could have gone either way. Luckily, it played out perfectly.”

The final Alpine stage features the north face of the Galibier sandwiched between the first category Col du Telegraphe and the hors categorie Alpe d’Huez. The legendary mountaintop finish affords victors a place in Tour history.