Three Tour titles in a row and for the record, three major sporting victories in a row. Carlos Sastre joins the Spanish football team and Rafael Nadal as champions of major sporting events this summer. It has been quiet a year for Spain and the last few days have been the icing on the cake in the career of Sastre. A worthy winner of this years Tour de France, he was the man who made the attack that counted, the one that broke his rivals and the one that none of the others could make stick. While everyone else jumped in twenty yard bursts only too look around at their rivals chasing them and sit up, Sastrejust kept going and rode off to get the big minutes he needed in order to win the Tour.

The time-trial was far from a forgone conclusion for Sastre but he had the lead he needed to hang onto his Yellow Jersey. Riding with the inspiration of that jersey on his back he held onto it by a much greater margin that people believed he could. He held on by over a minute. In the end he won the Tour by just under a minute after finishing in the bunch that was about five seconds behind the Evans bunch when it crossed the line in Paris. Sastre was simply enjoying the moment.

So Carlos Sastre is the 2008 champion and for the points made above about being unbreakable in the big mountains while having the daring to attack when it mattered, he is a very worthy champion. I could say I told you so, afterall, I did pick him to win the Tour way back three weeks ago when I was doing a guide for the thing on this very website, so ok… I told you so!

Now, for Sastre, comes the endorsements, the interviews and the big money for Sastre. He is into his 30’s now so he isn’t going to win a number of Tours, he may not win it again but having done it once is pretty dam good in anyone’s eyes.

His team were also superb, Frank and Andy Schleck marked all the moves in the big mountains and Frank Schleck gave up his lead of the Tour in the final mountain stage likely aware that his team-mate Sastre had a much better chance of putting in big minutes on that final climb as well as hanging onto the jersey in the time-trial. That proved to be right when Frank put in a terrible final time-trial to slip down the final order.

CSC are a team committed to anti-doping, they have an independent checking system within the team that we can only hope that all teams subscribe to in the coming years, and while they may be managed by an ex-doping cheat, Riis deserves credit for now trying to turn things around to make it a better sport than when he was going up a mountain pass in the big ring at 20mph.

This Tour has left us with a bunch of memories, of course there is Sastre’s ride up L’Alp as well as his win and his time-trial but there will always be the Four wins by Mark Cavendish that will go into Tour History, especially British Tour History. Let’s not forget the continued attacks by Sylvain Chavanel each day with one that finally paid off in his first Tour victory. Then there was the attacking by Stefan Schumacher and his two wins in the Time-Trial to confirm himself as the King against the Clock. I could go on and on, there was so much to remember that I am just glad I Sky Plused the two hour review of the Tour on ITV 4 and might consider it a good idea to purchase the DVD when it comes out.

And so, that marks the end of the best three weeks in the cycling calendar and we’ll have to wait a year for it all to come around again. There may have been four positive drug tests on this Tour, but no doubt it was clear to see by the riding style of the top men in the mountains as well as the speeds in the time-trial that finally the majority of the peloton was riding clean. It was a step in the right direction and while there will always be a handful of idiots trying to cheat the system, there is little doubt the system, which is the best in the world of any sport, is doing its job, and for that reason cycling deserves its praise for such an excellent Tour.

Here is hoping that when 12-months roll round and we hit France again that it will build on the success of this Tour.

Until that time though there is always the track racing at the Olympics and the Olympics road race and time-trial. Oh and there is always the three week long Tour of Spain and some more big mountain races. My prediction for that one - Alejandro Valverde (if he rides).

Congratulations Carlos Sastre and Team CSC.

YELLOW JERSEY: Carlos Sastre, CSC (Spain)
POINTS JERSEY: Oscar Freire, RAB (Spain)
MOUNTAIN JERSEY: Bernhard Kohl, GST (Austria)
YOUTH JERSEY: Andy Schleck, CSC (Luxemburg)
COMBATIVITY: Sylvain Chavanel, COF (France)
TEAM AWARD: Team CSC Saxo Bank

Category: Pro Road Racing » Carlos Sastre, Tour de France, Tour de France Review |

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