2008 Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre has said that he believes Alberto Contador will dominate the sport in the years to come, suggesting that he could even beat the seven Tour wins clocked up by Lance Armstrong.
While Contador is less than halfway to that mark, he has taken three Tour victories by the same age that Armstrong took his first. In addition to that, he has also won the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España, completing that historic treble in the shortest timeframe in the history of the sport.
And while Contador’s victory yesterday was his closest yet, Sastre has confidence that he can continue at the top for a long time.
“I believe Contador will be more successful than Armstrong someday because look what he has done,” Sastre told the New York Times. “He already won the Giro, the Vuelta and the Tour three times, that’s five Grand Tours to Armstrong’s seven. And this year, the Tour de France has beaten Armstrong, like it did to Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. He’s just the history. Now is Contador’s time.”
For his part, Contador refuses to talk about beating the record. He said that he will take his career one year at a time, then reflect on what he has achieved when he is done.
The 27 year old admitted that he was not at his top form this year. “It is a Tour in which I had a lot of pressure, especially physically as I was not at my best level,” he stated after the finish of the race. He finished just 39 seconds ahead of Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank), making it the fifth-closest winning margin in history.
“It took a lot of confidence to face difficult situations. For example, everyone said I had already won the Tour after the stage to the Tourmalet. But we saw yesterday, in the race against the clock, that it was not fully played out. Today is therefore a great relief for me, it is a moment that I feel like I’ve been liberated from all the pressure.”
The Spaniard was sick before the race and says that one possible explanation for his form was that the antibiotics he took might have had an effect.
He has taken three victories in four years, missing out on the 2008 race when his Astana team were not invited.
“The three wins are all very different,” he stated. “The first, in 2007, had something special, precisely because that was the first. Last year, the context was difficult and this made it tough. And this year I have had difficult moments, but I could count on a strong team. I realize that each year I gain in experience. I know better manage a team throughout the race.”
It is not yet certain if he has finalised his plans for 2011 vis-à-vis teams, but he plans to take a vacation and recover from the race. After that, he’ll make a final decision on participating in the 2010 Vuelta a España, although he has already indicated that this is unlikely.