Madrid - Contador, Armstrong - Armstrong, Contador.
Everything in the Tour de France appeared to hinge on the two Astana
team riders.
However, it will be Spain's Carlos Sastre who starts off with the
number one on his jersey, reserved for the defending champion, when
the Tour starts on Saturday in Monaco.
Small, laconic and modest, Sastre is probably the opposite of the
two great stars of international cycling, fellow-Spaniard Alberto
Contador and US legend Lance Armstrong.
Contador, who was not allowed to defend his 2007 yellow jersey in
2008 because of Astana's doping past, is the new engine pushing the
sport.
A tall, aggressive rider, his ambition and courage on a bicycle
bring to mind those of cycling greats like Eddy Merckx, and few
people are surprised that he has already won the three biggest races
- Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Spanish Vuelta - by the age of
26.
Armstrong is the returning giant from the past highlighted by a
record seven Tour titles. After a three-and-a-half-year retirement,
the Texan is back in competitive cycling, at age 37, and he is
attracting a tsunami of media attention from Twitter to major
international media.
Sastre has just turned 34, and he is as far from Armstrong's
glamour as he is from his record-breaking seven consecutive Tour de
France wins. He is even far from Contador's record, since Sastre's
only major win was last year's Tour, and even then he had to fight to
be considered his team's boss on the road.
Only his impressive display on the climb up the mythical Alpe
d'Huez - where he won the stage and grabbed the yellow jersey -
granted Sastre the leadership of the CSC team over the Luxembourg
brothers Frank and Andy Schleck.
After years as a 'gregario' - a 'domestique,' the working class of
world cycling - at the Spanish team ONCE and for Italian Ivan Basso
at CSC, Sastre finally caught up with glory. Tradition would once
again have its way, and the man who left the Alpe d'Huez as the race
leader climbed to the top of the podium in Paris.
'That was the best moment in my career,' Sastre says time and
again. 'But if I have already won the race once, I can win it again.'
At the end of 2008, the Spaniard left the team led by Bjarne Riis
to join Cervelo, a lower-ranking team according to the International
Cycling Union (UCI). It was a step down the ladder, but Sastre was
for the first time to have a team structure at his own disposal.
In the Tour de France he will have by his side his inseparable
compatriot Inigo Cuesta, the man who is charged with helping him in
the tough Alpine stages.
Spaniard Jose Angel Gomez Marchante, Ukranian Volodymyr Gustov,
Germans Heinrich Haussler and Andreas Klier, Norwegian Thor Hushovd,
New Zealander Hayden Roulston and Australian Brett Lancaster complete
the team around the defending
champion.
The Swiss team is far from matching the potential of Astana or of
the Rabobank of last Giro champion Denis Menchov, but Sastre is used
to swimming against the current.
'The difference with other editions (of the Tour) is the calm I
start of with,' Sastre noted. 'I feel happy to wear the number one.'
USA
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