Career ends in 2023: Luis Leon Sanchez - France specialist fulfils all his dreams after 20 years
Sebastian Lindner
· 04.12.2023
Luis Leon Sanchez does not necessarily come from a cycling-mad family. His path to cycling was more down to chance. And basically also great misfortune. His father is a policeman and was injured in a terrorist attack on duty. To help him cope with the resulting knee problems, his doctors prescribe cycling. To avoid having to do this alone, he also buys his two eldest sons, Leon and Luis Leon, a bike.
From then on, it happened. Just like his brother, five-year-old Luis falls in love with his bike. So much so that they both aspire to a professional career. While the younger one would earn his money for 20 years and only end his career shortly before his 40th birthday at the 2023 Vuelta in Madrid, the older one's career ended before it really began. In 2002 and 2003, they both rode in the Once - Würth U23 team before Leon decided to follow in his father's footsteps. But that never happened. In 2005, he dies in an accident on a quad bike.
Inspired by Contador's driving style
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Luis Leon Sanchez is currently in his second professional year with Liberty Seguros and has already taken the first five of his 47 victories. He delivers time and time again, especially in the time trial. His first success as a professional also came from the battle against the clock. At the 2004 Tour of Alcobendas, whose time trial he also won a year later, he left the later world champion Bert Grabsch and the Spanish time trial specialist Jose Ivan Gutierrez behind him.
In the meantime, Sanchez also secures his first Tour victory. In 2005, he won the Tour Down Under and took a stage victory. He gave away the second to his good friend and team-mate Alberto Contador, with whom he crossed the finish line arm in arm two days later.
Favoured by the riding style of the Madrilenian, who is about a year older, Sanchez is also working on his qualities on the mountain. However, his time trial skills suffer first. 2006 is his first - and until 2022 last - year without a win this season. However, 2006 is also the year of the major doping scandal surrounding the Spanish doctor Eufemiano FuentesLiberty Seguros is dissolved when the main sponsor pulls out because team boss Manolo Saiz is arrested for involvement in illegal business.
Luis Leon Sanchez is particularly fond of France
Sanchez initially came through the scandal unscathed, which would later catch up with him again. But first he moves to the Caisse d'Epargne team for the new season. And there he found his way back to success. At Paris-Nice, Sanchez wins a hilly stage as a soloist and secures third place in the overall standings. However, it remains his only victory of the year.
Things only got better the following season. Again in the Race to the Sun. He first finished second on the penultimate stage and then won the final stage. Later that year, Sanchez becomes Spanish time trial champion for the first time. His first victory in the Tour de France follows shortly afterwards. He dedicates his greatest victory to date to his deceased brother.
As a result, Sanchez continued to improve and was at his best on stages that had big mountains in the profile but did not end on a summit. And he became a regular on French podiums. In the spring, he won the Tour Mediterraneen, a stage of the Tour Haut Var and once again the final stage of Paris-Nice. And this time also the overall classification.
He skipped the classics and instead took part in the Tour of the Basque Country and travelled to the Tour in the summer, where he once again shone as a breakaway rider, winning the 8th stage with two 1st category mountains ahead of Sandy Casar.
Sanchez finishes in the top 10 at the Tour and Vuelta
In 2010, he failed to win Paris-Nice for the first time in several years, but won stages Down Under, the Tour of the Algarve and the Tour of the Sarthe. He also becomes Spanish time trial champion again and thus rides in the Tour de France. This time he is defeated by Casar in a breakaway duel on a stage similar to the previous year and finishes second. However, Luis Leon Sanchez shows unprecedented tenacity and finishes ninth overall as the best of his team.
The man from Mula near Murcia also proves his good form at the Classica San Sebastian. He wins the Spanish one-day race ahead of Alexandre Vinokourov and Carlos Sastre. In the course of his success, Sanchez also rode two Grand Tours in one season for the first time. He also finishes the Vuelta in a surprisingly high ninth place.
However, he will no longer be a great tour rider. Because his new team Rabobank - Caisse d'Epargne will become Movistar in 2011, but without Sanchez - sees other qualities in its new signing. The Dutch team prefers the aggressive stage hunter. In addition, Sanchez actually has the skills of a classics chaser. But in the 24 monuments in which he has competed during his career, he has never finished in the top 10.
Instead, Sanchez defends his title as Spanish time trial champion for the first time. At the Tour, he strikes again on stage 9. Casar is there again, but this time he only finishes third out of the breakaway group. The Vuelta is also on his programme again, but he fails to win a stage. And as in the Tour, the attack on the overall classification fails.
Suspension from Team Rabobank
Everything is back to normal in 2012. Stage win at Paris-Nice. Spanish time trial champion. Breakaway victory at the Tour de France ahead of Peter Sagan and Sandy Casar. Sanchez also wins again in San Sebastian. He also takes two consecutive stage wins at the Romandie. Perhaps this is his best year.
But things get uncomfortable after that. In October 2012, the American anti-doping agency publishes its report on the scandalous conditions in the US Postel team around Lance Armstrong. Rabobank then announces the end of its involvement in cycling. Questions are being asked everywhere again. In the Netherlands, Sanchez no longer enjoys the status of a popular favourite as he previously did with the Spanish teams. In 2007, he had denied any contact with Fuentes in the doping scandal a year earlier. He did admit to having worked with the equally controversial Dr Michele Ferrari. But that didn't bother anyone in Spain.
Team Blanco, which is financed by Rabobank, is now taking a closer look at the situation. In February 2013, Sanchez was suspended and the team wanted to take a closer look at his past. After nothing solid was found, the now 29-year-old was allowed to race again from May. When he returned to racing, he immediately won a stage of the Tour of Belgium.
However, nobody at Blanco is really convinced of Sanchez's innocence, which is why the contract, which runs until 2015, is cancelled in exchange for a compensation payment. So Sanchez has to look for a new team, but he will not be joining the World Tour. Instead, he returned home. He wins two stages in smaller tours with the second-class team Caja Rural - Seguros. The team is given a wildcard for the Vuelta. And Sanchez takes the mountains jersey ahead of his mate Contador. It remains the only victory he can celebrate at the Vuelta, he has never won a stage in 14 participations.
Sanchez joins Astana for seven years
After a year with Caja Rural, Luis Leon Sanchez returns to the World Tour. Astana, the team that once took over the licence from Liberty Seguros, secured his services. Year after year, he wins stages in smaller races, including a stage of the Tour of the Basque Country in 2016 and his home race, the Tour of Murcia, for the first time in 2018. However, he can no longer build on the great successes of the past with the Kazakhs. However, Sanchez is already 35 years old. In 2020, he will become Spanish champion on the road for the first time.
He stays with Astana for seven years. Then Sanchez moves to Bahrain-Victorious for one year in 2022. For the first time in 16 years, he doesn't win a race this season, although he does manage to snatch third place on a breakaway day at the Tour de France. Not enough for him to end his career. He returns to Astana for 2023. Together with the second oldie in the team, Mark Cavendish, he will ride what is supposed to be his last Tour. And just like the sprinter, Sanchez has to finish the race give up after a fall with a broken collarbone.
But instead of hanging on for another year, he wants to end his career at the Vuelta. He makes this public on the second rest day. And crashes shortly afterwards. For a moment, things didn't look good again. He has often been plagued by bad luck. He also had to retire after the second stage of the 2018 Tour and later published shock photos from the hospital. This time, however, he recovered, finished the Vuelta and celebrated in Madrid with bandages on his arms and legs.
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Sanchez: "The time has come"
The 21st stage of the Vuelta is Sanchez' 1582nd race day in his career, according to statistics on procyclingstats.com. That's the equivalent of four years and 122 days. At least in the recent past, there are hardly any riders who have completed more race days. Only Philippe Gilbert and Davide Rebellin are listed ahead of him. He finished the 2023 season with 90 days in the saddle, no one has more. In 2019, he set his personal best with 97 days.
But even for a frequent traveller, there comes a time. "It's not easy to end this wonderful game that started when I was five years old. Who would tell this kid that all his dreams would come true?" he said in his statement on the Vuelta rest day. "But everything has an end and I think the time has come. Cycling has given me a lot, more than I could ever have imagined."
The greatest successes of Luis Leon Sanchez
- 4x stage winner at the Tour de France (2008, 2009, 2011, 2012)
- Overall winner Paris-Nice 2009
- 2x winner of the Classica San Sebastian (2010 and 2012)
- Winner of the mountain triathlon at the Vuelta Espana (2014)
- 9th overall in the Tour de France and the Vuelta (both 2010)
- 4x stage winner at Paris-Nice (2007, 2008, 2009, 2012)
- Overall winner Tour Down Under 2005
- A total of 47 victories as a professional
