Key moments

The CSC team has always had the strength of numbers and while Carlos Sastre has had a relatively quiet Tour de France in 2008, he made his one attack count. The Spaniard surged ahead at the base of the final climb, rode his way into a commanding lead and ended up winning by over two minutes and taking the yellow jersey. His team-mate and former race leader was content to watch as a seventh rider raced into the overall lead but every other favorite was forced to pace himself to the summit minimizing the time lost to an inspired rider who claimed his second stage victory in the Tour de France and inherited the overall lead.

The Progress Report
The 210.5km 17th stage from Embrun to the celebrated summit of L’Alpe d’Huez began at 11.40am. There were 151 riders in the race. The itinerary included four climbs: one category-3 (the cote de Saint-Marguerite, at 31km), followed by three ‘Hors Categorie’ challenges – the 2,645m Col du Galibier (featuring the ‘Souvenir Henri Desgrange’) at 79km, the 2,067m Col de la Croix de Fer at 156km and the final rise to the ski station of L’Alpe d’Huez at an altitude of 1,850m. The intermediate sprints were in Monetiers-les-Bains (at 57.5km) and Bourg d’Oisans, just before the last climb (195km).

Four Establish Escape
The first attack of the stage stuck: Di Gregorio (FDJ), Velits (MRM) and Perez (EUS) jumped ahead at 3km and built a lead of 15” before being chased down by Schumacher (GST) at 15km. The peloton allowed the advantage to grow but CSC was diligent at the head of the bunch that trailed by 2’00” at 28km and 4’10” at 42km. The average for the first hour was 44.6km/h. At the base of the Galibier, the peloton’s deficit was 5’45”. Schumacher claimed the ‘Souvenir Henri Desgrange’. The only attack in the peloton came from Txurruka, Augustyn, Wegmann, Voeckler and Kohl in the closing kilometer of the pass and the polka-dot jersey led this group to the line 4’45” behind Schumacher. The peloton was at 5’00” at the summit. Perez overshot a corner early on the descent but quickly remounted and set the tempo for the escapees on the descent.

Col de la Croix de Fer
Di Gregorio was dropped from the lead group on the descent of the col du Telegraph (around the 110km mark). At the base of the third climb, the Frenchman was 2’40” behind his former escape companions. The peloton went through the feedzone (119km) with a deficit of 6’50” and at the foot of the Col de la Croix de Fer it was at 7’20” – this was the maximum gain of the escapees. O’Grady led the bunch virtually from the moment the escapees established an advantage. Cancellara took over the pacesetting duties at the base of the third climb. Perez dropped from the lead group 20km from the top. Cancellara reduced the advantage of the escapees to 4’20” with 15km to climb. By then there were just 40 in the yellow jersey’s peloton: Nibali, Popovych, Hincapie, and many others failed to match the pace of the TT world champion. Velits dropped Schumacher 6km from the summit.
Schumacher was caught 4.7km from the top of the Iron Cross climb.
The yellow jersey’s group thinned down to 18 riders before the top including: Evans, Aerts, Sastre, Arvesen, Schleck, Schleck, Valverde, Arroyo, Siutsou, Froome, Fofonov, Efimkin, Goubert, Valjavec, Kohl, Menchov, Weening, Casar, Moncoutie and Vande Velde. At the top, Velits led by 1’10”. Soon after the summit, Pineau caught and attacked the yellow jersey’s peloton and caught the stage leader 30km from the finish. The peloton was at 1’50”.

Sastre Dominant At L’Alpe d’Huez
The advantage of Pineau and Velits was just 1’10” at the start of the final climb. It was as though their escape never happened once the climb began. CSC had six rider in the lead of the peloton at the start of the final ascent. Cancellara peeled off and it was Game on for Carlos Sastre who bolted ahead, past the escapees and never to be seen again until he threw a victory salute and kissed his CSC jersey as he crossed the line, 2’03” ahead of his nearest rival. Menchov tried to follow the Spaniard but was dropped 12km from the line. Then an elite selection that contained: Frank and Andy Schleck, Evans, Kohl, Vande Velde, Valverde, Goubert, Efimkin, Valjavec and Vande Velde formed. Each of these riders would attack at one stage or another except for Evans who took control of the chase with 4km to go. He led the pursuit of Sastre and focused on minimizing his loss to the rider who began the stage in fourth, 49” behind his team-mate and ended it in the yellow jersey, 1’24” ahead of Frank Schleck.

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During the hubbub of the post-race interviews, it was suggested to Andy Schleck that he’s a future winner of the Tour de France. That may be the case but the leader of the youth classification isn’t prepared to talk up his chances while he’s busy working on another job.

“I felt really good but I’m here to learn and it’s been a good Tour so far and I showed also some weakness which some others didn’t and that’s why I’m so far down in the general classification now. But I’m optimistic and I’m really happy to finish third today here, on Alpe d’Huez. I mean, I think I showed something and nobody else could have followed Carlos today. He was incredibly strong and also really confident when he had to be. When he left us, nobody could really do anything.
“I’m not listening when people say I’m a future winner of the Tour de France. I’ll stay with my feet on the ground. What everybody expects from me and what they say about me… well, that’s just talk but I’m the one who has to do the work and I’d like to come back here one day and try again. I know that it was a lot of work to do to be here and do what I’ve done this year.
“I will come back one year and try to reach the podium of the Tour. I think it’s possible; why not? But I’m not going to say that I’m going to win it one day.”

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He lost the yellow jersey by following a team plan but Frank Schleck is content. He’s aware that the job isn’t completely finished for CSC-Saxo Bank but the team continues to lead the race even if he has dropped down the rankings to second overall.

“We had planned that Carlos would attack at the beginning of the climb and that I should attack afterwards but he got away and he took it all the way to the line and deserves everything that he’s earned. I’m not at all disappointed. I’m happy that he’s taken the yellow jersey; that’s the only way that we can win the Tour.
“I didn’t get any orders on what to do. We are professionals and we are friends so I didn’t need to be told how to ride. Things went exactly according to plan and it happened right from the start of the crucial phase. We were prepared to back up an attack from Carlos with one from me, then one from Andy until we made the other leaders tired.
“We’ve seen a beautiful stage today from CSC and I’m proud of our boys.
“I don’t want to talk about the time gaps we need over Cadel Evans; next thing I’ll be asked how many seconds I need to stay on the podium… come on, we had to play our tactics today and we’ll consider what needs to be done next. One step at a time. For Cadel we hoped to try just a series of small attacks and see if he would show any weaknesses or if he would blow at one point. It would have been different. But he never blew so we had to play it this way.”

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During the lead-up to the Tour de France, the CSC-Saxo Bank team insisted that it had one captain in a line-up of champions. Carlos Sastre was to be The Protected Rider and while success has come their way before in the 95th edition of the race, the victory by the team captain at the heralded summit of L’Alpe d’Huez provides enormous satisfaction for the winner and all else involved in a great combined effort.

“We saw a great stage and a team work perfectly together. Without the support of Frank and Andy, this moment would not have been possible. I am happy for many things. To have riders close to me like the colleagues I have is very special; men like Fabian, Stuey, Nicki, Kurt, Vladdy, Jens Voigt and the Schleck brothers is, I think, something very special. For sure, it’s a nice moment for me and a time to enjoy for the whole team and this jersey and the white one worn by Andy are for the team. All of us are really happy today.
“I don’t know about my gains and how it is for the time trial on Saturday. I want to enjoy the moment now and celebrate with my team-mates because they did a fantastic job. The best thing we can do is enjoy the yellow jersey, the white jersey and the stage victory because we have been working really hard for this.
“I was suffering a lot, man. That climb was hard! They say that when you’re suffering it’s hard to enjoy the moment but when you are gaining time on your rivals, there’s a lot of satisfaction that comes from that. It helps you push as much as you can and try to go as fast as you can.
“I’m satisfied because the team has given me everything. Big riders like Fabian have sacrificed everything for us to afford our dream. The media has to talk about something and I’m happy that Frank took the pressure off me before. I just hope that everyone appreciates what the CSC-Saxo Bank team has been able to do.
“The victory celebration maybe cost me one second. This moment is something that happens once in your lifetime if you’re very, very lucky and I wanted to enjoy it at the time.”

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