By Siegfried Mortkowitz Jul 27, 2008, 15:51 GMT
Paris - Carlos Sastre, the winner of the 2008 Tour de France, is liked by nearly everyone, teammates and rivals alike, and is so reserved that he escaped the notice of most cycling prognosticators before the race began.
In typical fashion, when he crossed the finish line of Saturday's stage, having clinched the Tour championship, the 33-year-old Sastre pointed at the sky, in tribute to his late brother-in-law, Jose 'Chava' Jimenez, who died in 2003 of a heart attack.
'We shared everything,' Sastre said. 'I won for him. He and I had the same dreams.'
Sastre's dream has come true. Born in a suburb of Madrid on April 22, 1975, he began to ride bicycles at the age of eight, and soon discovered that he had talent for the sport.
He began his professional career in 1997 as a 'servant' to the leader of the Spanish ONCE team, which was managed by Manolo Sainz, who has since been linked with the infamous Fuentes doping affair.
With ONCE, he fetched drinks and food for, first, the great French rider Laurent Jalabert and, later, Spaniard Joseba Beloki.
When he switched to the CSC team of former Tour champion Bjarne Riis, in 2002, Sastre eventually served the Italian Ivan Basso, who finished second in the 2005 Tour de France, behind Lance Armstrong.
When Basso was barred from taking part in the 2006 Tour, because of his alleged involvement in the Fuentes affair, Sastre was catapulted into the team leadership and finished in third place, after the disqualification, for doping, of Floyd Landis.
Sastre's loyalty is praised by everyone who has ridden with him, and was proven in this year's decisive 17th stage, when he fetched water bottles for his teammates before he took off on a solo breakaway up the Alpe d'Huez to take over the race leadership.
No one also doubts that Sastre rides without the benefit of banned substances, although he has worked with a number of people who have since been implicated in doping, such as Saiz, Beloki and Basso.
True to his personality, he still praises Saiz, saying he was '10 years ahead of others in terms of professionalism,' and admits calling him occasionally.
'I am clean,' Sastre declares, and says that the secret to his success was 'hard work, the capacity to suffer and having a top team behind me.'
In becoming the third Spaniard in succession and seventh overall to win the Tour de France, the Madrid native had prepared himself 'as never before.'
'I gave myself every chance. I had a dream, and it has become reality.'
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