Carlos Sastre

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Carlos Sastre

Personal information
Full name	Carlos Sastre Candil
Date of birth	April 22, 1975 (age 31)
Country	Spain
Height	1.73 m
Weight	61 kg
Team information
Current team	Team CSC
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Climbing specialist
Professional team(s)
1998-2001 2002-	ONCE Team CSC
Major wins
Tour de France, 1 stage Klasika Primavera (2006)
Infobox last updated on:
December 14, 2006

Carlos Sastre Candil (born 22 April 1975 in Madrid) is a Spanish professional road bicycle racer. Through his consistently improved top 10 results in the Vuelta a España and good showings in the Tour de France, Sastre has established himself as a strong and stable climbing specialist, and after working to improve his individual time trial skills, he has become a potential contender for the top GC spots in the Grand Tours.

[edit] Biography

He signed his first professional contract in 1997 with Spanish team ONCE. In his five years at ONCE he mostly served as a domestique and only managed a few wins, though he showed his strength as a good mountain rider with a string of good results, most notably winning the mountain competition in the 2000 Vuelta a España.

In 2002 he switched to the Danish Team CSC, where he filled the role of captain in the Vuelta a España and, until 2005, had a free role in the Tour de France. This resulted in the win of the 13th stage of the 2003 Tour de France, which Sastre won with a pacifier in his mouth, as a greeting to his infant daughter. Sastre finished 2:32 minutes ahead of team captain Tyler Hamilton on the stage.

Before the 2004 season, Carlos Sastre and teammate Ivan Basso trained extensively to improve their individual time trial, making them better all-round riders. They went to Boston to train on MIT's wind tunnel. Sastre went on to improve his Vuelta a España performance, ranking 6th in the overall classification, as well as 8th in the 2004 Tour de France, his best results yet at that time.

Vuelta 2005: Sastre warming up for the stage 20 individual time trial. He finished third on the stage and retained his overall third place.

In the 2005 Tour de France he was tied in a role as helper for Ivan Basso, and finished number 21 in the overall classement. However, as the captain of Team CSC's 2005 Vuelta a España campaign, Carlos finally reached the podium of one of the Grand Tours, as he finished in 3rd place, behind Denis Menchov and initial winner Roberto Heras, who was later disqualified due to a positive EPO test making Sastre the de facto 2nd placed rider of the competition. After the Vuelta a España, he extended his contract with Team CSC for another year. In May 2006 he signed a new contract which expires after the 2008 season.

Before the 2006 Giro d'Italia in May, Sastre decided to ride the Giro d'Italia to help Ivan Basso to win,^[1] indicating that he would ride all three Grand Tours; the Giro and Tour in support of Basso and the Vuelta as team captain. In the Giro, Sastre's pace on select mountain stages helped Basso defeat his top rivals for the Giro win. Sastre finished 43rd in the GC of the 2006 Giro d'Italia.

Days before the 2006 Tour de France started in July, Team CSC suspended Ivan Basso as his name was brought up in the Operación Puerto doping investigation. This meant Sastre became the Team CSC team captain at the 2006 Tour. Even though his main focus for the season had been the Vuelta a España 2006 in September, the Tour was a great opportunity for Sastre to prove himself as Tour GC contender. Through the mountain stages, Sastre proved himself as the strongest mountain rider in the peloton, beating Floyd Landis by one minute and 59 seconds and Andreas Klöden by two and a half minutes, measured in pure mountain climbing.^[2] Sastre was placed well on stage 15, and came in 2nd on both stage 16 and 17, where he closed the gap to the then yellow jersey Óscar Pereiro. Before the penultimate stage of the Tour, the stage 19 individual time trial, Sastre was the second placed rider overall, trailing race leader Óscar Pereiro by 14 seconds. At the time trial, which stretched 57 kilometres between Le Creusot and Montceau-les-Mines, Sastre finished 20th, four minutes and 42 seconds behind stage winner Sergej Honchar. Sastre lost several minutes to Pereiro, as well as eventual overall winner Floyd Landis and Andreas Klöden, who took third place overall. Sastre thus finished the 2006 Tour in 4th place.

[edit] Major results

2000

• King of the Mountains and 8th Overall, Vuelta a España

2001

• Stage 3, Vuelta a Burgos
• 20th Overall, Tour de France

2002

• 10th Overall, Tour de France

2003

• Stage 13 win and 9th Overall, Tour de France

2004

• 8th Overall, Tour de France
• 6th Overall, Vuelta a España

2005

• 21st Overall, Tour de France
• 2nd Overall, Vuelta a España
• Stage 1, Escalada a Montjuïc

2006

• 4th Overall, Tour de France
• Klasika Primavera

[edit] References

1. ^ Sastre in Giro line-up, Team CSC, 2006
2. ^ (Danish) Sastre var bedst i bjergene, TV 2, July 22, 2006

[edit] External links

• Official homepage
• Team CSC profile