Schlecks quit Saxo Bank team

Luxembourg pair Andy and Frank Schleck are to leave their Saxo Bank team with a view to joining a home-based outfit next season, Cyclingnews reported the pair as saying on Friday.

"It's official that we will not be riding with (Saxo Bank owner) Bjarne (Riis) next season," Tour de France runner-up Andy Schleck said in a message published on the site.

"We are going to leave at the end of the year," he added.

Recently, the brothers had been linked to a new Luxembourg based outfit with Saxo Bank set to leave the sport at the end of 2010.

"We're not going to stay. We're going to leave at the end of the year. All the doubts and news about us racing in the same team as (Tour de France champion Alberto) Contador are now finished. We're not going to continue."

The Schlecks are reportedly set to join former Riis employee, Brian Nygaard, who recently left Team Sky amid reports he could work as team manager with the Schlecks on board.

Andy Schleck has spent five years and Frank eight alongside Riis, who before the Tour remarked that he knew which way the wind was blowing as "I can not imagine a new Luxembourg team without Frank and Andy Schleck in it."

The Schlecks confirmed as much when they said: "We can't say where we're going but of course there's a team in Luxembourg coming up ... we made our mind up and Bjarne knows."