Carlos Sastre 2008 Tour de France Winner

2008 Tour de France Map

The 2008 Tour de France was the 95th Tour de France. The event took place from July 5 to July 27, 2008. Starting in the French city of Brest, the tour entered Italy on the 15th stage and returned to France during the 16th, heading for Paris, its regular final destination, which was reached in the 21st stage. All time bonuses for intermediate sprints and at each stage finish line have been scrapped.

On February 13, 2008, the event organisers, the Amaury Sport Organisation, announced that the Astana Team would be barred from the 2008 Tour due to its involvement in the doping scandals that marred the 2007 Tour and its links to the 2006 Operación Puerto doping case. This move comes despite an almost complete turnover of the team's management, and rider roster in the wake of the 2007 scandals. The ASO's decision means that defending champion Alberto Contador and last year's third-place finisher Levi Leipheimer, both of whom signed with the revamped Astana Team, will not compete in the 2008 Tour. 2007 green jersey points winner Tom Boonen tested positive for cocaine in a test on May 26, 2008. Since this was outside competition, Boonen does not face sanctions by the UCI or WADA. Despite the absence of official sanctions, Boonen was barred from the 2008 Tour de France.

Carlos Sastre 2008 Tour de France Winner
Sastre coming into the 2008 Tour de France was considered one of the favourites to win the year's race along with Australia's Cadel Evans of Team Silence-Lotto, Spain's Alejandro Valverde of Caisse d'Epargne and Russia's Denis Menchov of Rabobank. However, he also faced competition within his own team from brothers Fränk Schleck and Andy, despite officially being classed as team leader of CSC.

Sastre had a quiet, understated opening to the tour. After a lacklustre opening time-trial, he remained relatively restrained in the opening mountain stages in the Pyrenees and opted to stay defensive and follow the wheel of his main rivals. This allowed his CSC teammate Fränk Schleck to claim the yellow jersey at the finish to stage 15 at Prato Nevoso. However, going into the crucial 17th stage culminating at the 21 hairpin climb up to Alpe d'Huez, it was Sastre who showed his class and strength. He attacked at the bottom of this famous climb away from the main general classification contenders and overhauled his deficits to claim the stage and the yellow jersey.

Going into the final time trial, Sastre had an advantage of 1 minute and 24 seconds over his teammate Fränk Schleck, although more crucially he had 10 seconds more over Cadel Evans, a man considered a more accomplished time trialist than himself. Evans was widely expected to overcome the arrears to leapfrog Sastre; however Sastre on this occasion was able to put in a winning performance to stave off the challenge of Evans and keep the yellow to eventually win in Paris by fifty-eight seconds.

Sastre's victory capped an exceptional 2008 tour for the Danish Team CSC Saxo Bank. CSC also won the young rider classification with Andy Schleck and the overall team classification.


Carlos Sastre 2008 Tour de France Winner

Who Is Carlos Sastre
Carlos Sastre Candil was born on 22 April 1975 in Leganés, Madrid, Sastre is a Spanish professional road bicycle racer and champion of the 2008 Tour de France. Through his consistently improved top 10 results in the Vuelta a España and good showings in the Tour de France, Sastre established himself as a strong and stable climbing specialist, and after working to improve his individual time trial skills, he has become a contender for the top GC spots in the Grand Tours.

2008 Tour de France Teams
Belgium
Quick Step
Silence-Lotto

Denmark
Team CSC Saxo Bank

France
Ag2r-La Mondiale
Agritubel
Bouygues Télécom
Cofidis, le Crédit par téléphone
Crédit Agricole
Française des Jeux

Germany
Gerolsteiner
Team Milram

Italy
Lampre
Liquigas

Netherlands
Rabobank

Spain
Caisse d'Epargne
Euskaltel-Euskadi
Saunier Duval-Scott

United Kingdom
Barloworld

United States of America
Team Garmin-Chipotle
Team Columbia

2008 Tour de France Stages
In previous years, the Tour started with a prologue, followed by a week of flat stages. The flat stages were dominated by the sprinters' teams, and the yellow jersey was worn by a sprinter who had a good prologue. Tour Director Christian Prudhomme announced that the 2008 Tour should be different: "We have wanted a first week of racing with much more rhythm. With no prologue, an uphill finish that will suit different types of sprinters at the end of stage one, with a short time trial on stage four and the first mountain at Super-Besse only 48 hours later, we have decided to change the scenario." The time bonuses at the end of each stage were removed, and there will be 82 kilometers of time trials, rather less than usual.

The 2008 Tour de France is almost entirely in France, with only a small part in Italy.

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