22 Facts About Carlos Sastre

1.

Carlos Sastre consistently achieved outstanding results in the Vuelta a Espana and in the Tour de France.

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2.

In total, Carlos Sastre finished in the top ten of fifteen Grand Tours during his career, and finished on the podium of each of them.

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3.

Carlos Sastre never tested positive for drugs, nor was he implicated in any doping investigation, even though he performed at the top level of cycling.

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4.

When Carlos Sastre was young, professional cyclist Francisco Ignacio San Roman lived in his parents' house during military service.

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5.

Carlos Sastre was at first coached by his father, until he became an amateur.

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6.

Carlos Sastre signed his first professional contract in 1997 with ONCE.

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7.

Carlos Sastre finished 2 minutes 32 seconds ahead of team captain Tyler Hamilton on the stage.

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8.

However, as the captain of Team CSC's 2005 Vuelta a Espana campaign, Carlos Sastre finally reached the podium of a Grand Tour, finishing in third place behind Denis Menchov and initial winner Roberto Heras.

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9.

Carlos 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 Oscar Pereiro.

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10.

However, on the final time trial, which stretched 57 kilometres between Le Creusot and Montceau-les-Mines, Carlos Sastre finished 20th, losing several minutes to Pereiro, eventual overall winner Floyd Landis and Andreas Kloden, who took third place overall.

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11.

When he finished the 2006 Vuelta 4th overall, Carlos Sastre, who rode the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France in 2006, became one of a rare breed of riders to finish all three Grand Tours in one year.

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12.

Carlos Sastre faced competition within his own team from brothers Andy and Frank Schleck, despite officially being the leader of CSC–Saxo Bank.

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13.

However, on the crucial 17th stage, Carlos Sastre showed his class and mountain climbing prowess, attacking at the bottom of the final climb of the day, Alpe d'Huez, finishing 2 minutes and 15 seconds ahead of Evans, claiming both the stage win and the yellow jersey.

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14.

However, Carlos Sastre managed to hold onto his lead in the time trial, finishing the Tour with a 58-second lead.

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15.

Carlos Sastre's victory capped an exceptional 2008 tour for CSC–Saxo Bank, as they won the young rider classification with Andy Schleck, the overall team classification, as well as 2 stages, the latter being won by Carlos Sastre, on l'Alpe d'Huez.

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16.

Carlos Sastre's victory was however criticized by Lance Armstrong, who said the 2008 Tour was a joke.

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17.

Carlos Sastre joined the new Cervelo TestTeam for the 2009 season.

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18.

Carlos Sastre won the high mountain Stage 16 of the 2009 Giro d'Italia, which had been called the Giro's queen stage, after seven hours and twelve minutes.

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19.

Carlos Sastre then completed the Giro with a solid ride in the final time-trial around Rome to hold off Ivan Basso and finished 2nd overall.

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20.

In 2010, Carlos Sastre raced all three Grand Tours, finishing 8th in the Giro, 20th in the Tour and 7th in the Vuelta.

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21.

Carlos Sastre announced that he would join Geox-TMC for the 2011 season.

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22.

Carlos Sastre is married to the sister of cyclist Jose Maria Jimenez, who died in 2003.

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