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RBA FEATURES: SASTRE: "I KNOW WHAT I HAVE TO DO"
Chris Henry
July 18, 2009
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A relaxed Carlos Sastre takes time for the fans before stage 13
(Photo: Chris Henry)
Defending Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre has had a quiet first half of this year's race. The Spaniard has lost nearly three minutes to Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong since the opening time trial in Monaco, but Road Bike Action found Sastre as serene as ever when we spoke to him at the start of stage 13 in Vittel.
"I feel okay... I feel good and I haven't had any problems so far," Sastre said, brushing off any notion that his time deficit will be insurmountable. "Today is a hard day after a really hard week. It's 200 kilometers over tough roads, and the speed will be high.
"It's going to be a hard rest of the Tour de France," he added.
Despite losing Levi Leipheimer to a fractured wrist, the Astana team still has three riders within a minute of yellow, as Andreas Kloden sits ready to add more firepower to the team of Contador and Armstrong. For Sastre and other favorites such as Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Slipstream), Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank), or Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto), the question becomes how to crack the Astana machine.
"I don't know what the rest will do but I know what I need to do," he said with a smile, preferring to keep his trade secrets to himself.
Sastre laid the foundation for his 2008 Tour victory with an attack on the slopes of the Alpe d'Huez. Clearly, this year he will need to pull out a similar performance, if not more than one, if he is to make up time and pass Armstrong and Contador in the overall standings.
Nonetheless, having avoided crashes or illness thus far, Sastre isn't afraid to look forward to such a performance.
"I'm confident because I trained the way I wanted to and I felt like I was ready before the Tour started," he said.
Sastre's Cervélo TestTeam has found other success on the road with a stage win by Thor Hushovd in Barcelona followed by Heinrich Haussler's marathon escape to Colmar. Hushovd himself, ready to work for Sastre for the overall, thanked his leader at the time for allowing him to pursue the green jersey as well.
"Just because we have two goals that doesn't mean we're crazy and we should forget about either one," Sastre commented on the team's desire to take home two jerseys.
"We are here to fight as much as we can and if we get something at the end it will be really nice."
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