Cycling reacts to Andy Schleck's retirement

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Andy Schleck was not a factor at the finish of the Alpe d'Huez stage of the 2013 Tour de France(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

On Thursday morning Andy Schleck announced his retirement from professional cycling, due to the knee injury he sustained at the Tour de France this summer. After the announcement, friends, teammates and former rivals took to twitter to pay tribute to the 29-year-old. Here are a selection of the reactions.

My friend and teammate Andy Schleck just had his press conference and of course i followed it. Andy i support you and always stay your friend… Now you can start new projects and take new challenges! You are a great rider and an ever greater Friend!! @andy_schleck my younger brother!... Best thing is we both know we gonna stay connected and keep doing things together! Friendship beyond our careers.

“This end leaves regrets because of his inherent talent. Cyrille Guimard was the first person to speak to me about him, and his first glimmers at the Giro suggested a brilliant career. But these past three seasons have been years of incessant crashes and setbacks. He never stopped falling and trying to get back up. Perhaps there was a real rupture in his career after his crash at the Dauphiné in 2012. He impressed me a lot with his victory in Liège-Bastogne-Liège and of course also with his stage win on the Galibier. We were entitled to imagine there would be more prestige to follow.”