By Ignacio Naya Jul 3, 2009, 13:20 GMT
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.'
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