by Justin Davis

LIEGE, Belgium, April 27, 2009 (AFP) – The step up from winning one of the world’s toughest one-day bike races to reigning supreme on the Tour de France is one most cycling fans would say is incomparable.

But Andy Schleck’s dreams of one day winning the world famous yellow jersey drew closer Sunday when he capped a superb attack on the steepest climb of Liege-Bastogne-Liege with victory in cycling’s oldest one-day classic.

Only in his fifth year as a professional, Schleck has in the past two years emerged from the shadow of older brother Frank, who rides with him at the Saxo Bank team, to underline his credentials as a future Tour de France winner.

That belief first emerged in 2007 when a series of impressive performances in the mountains of the Giro d’Italia pushed eventual winner Danilo Di Luca all the way, and Schleck finished runner-up.

Last year, on his Tour de France debut, Schleck further outlined his yellow jersey potential by winning the white jersey which rewards the best placed rider aged 25 or under in the race’s tough general classification.

At only 23 years old, Schleck is still in the early stages of his professional career, and critics would argue that his time trialling skills – often so crucial in the world’s biggest bike race – remain his handicap.

But he is already meeting that challenge head-on.

After ending Luxembourg’s 55-year wait for victory at ‘La Doyenne’ on Sunday, he will fore go his usual rest day of hunting or fishing to begin preparations for his second big aim of the season.

“The early part of my season I wanted to be 100 percent for the classics, where my main aim was to win Liege-Bastogne-Liege,” said Schleck, whose father Johnny was a Tour de France regular in the 1960s.

“Now I want to concentrate on being 100 percent for the Tour de France, my second big objective of the season.

“We’ll be celebrating tonight (Sunday), but on Monday I have quite a tough day ahead of me, with a training session on the time trial bike.”

In July’s Tour de France, 2007 champion Alberto Contador of Astana will line up as most people’s yellow jersey favourite.

He can climb with the best, and is a strong time trialler – skills which helped the Spaniard make history last year when he became one of only a handful of riders to claim victory in all three major Tours of France, Italy and Spain.

Contador won the Giro d’Italia and Tour of Spain in 2008 after his Astana team was banned by the Tour de France race organizers and his return means fellow Spaniard Carlos Sastre will face a tough yellow jersey defense.

Sastre’s win last year was also in large part thanks to the displays of his dominant CSC team, including the Schleck brothers. But since then he has moved to Cervelo, who will race together at the Tour for the first time.

Other big contenders include Australia’s two-time runner-up Cadel Evans, American Levi Leipheimer and Frank Schleck, who sacrificed his own chances last year for Sastre and still came in sixth overall.

Ahead of what should be a thrilling battle in July, where the addition of American Lance Armstrong will add some spice to the Tour, Andy Schleck is happy to play down his chances.

“Of course it’s a dream of mine to win the Tour. But I think there’s a lot of work to be done before I can start to think seriously about it,” he added.

However the age-old strategy of playing down victory chances is one of the most used on the Tour de France, and will be hard to defend if Andy Schleck – as he did on Sunday – leaves his rivals trailing, in the Alps and Pyrenees.