20 Facts About Carlos Sastre

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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