Carlos Sastre (Cervélo TestTeam) has not been enjoying his best Grand Tour at this year’s Vuelta a España. Nevertheless after Monday’s stage to the Alto de Cotobello he has risen to ninth overall, 4’53” behind race leader Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) but tellingly still 10 seconds behind his own teammate Xavier Tondo.
“The start of this year’s Vuelta a España was not at all easy,” said the 2008 Tour de France winner on the race’s second rest day, “and in fact for all the members of this team it hasn’t changed as the race progresses. On top of that, a cold I caught when I was travelling from Alicante to Tarragona complicated things for me even more during this past week, while my strength is also waning after three big tours. That is why I said that my enthusiasm is outweighing my strength now.”
On yesterday’s mountaintop finish Sastre attacked in pursuit of Fränk Schleck (Saxo Bank) and Tom Danielson (Garmin-Transitions). Although he caught up with the two riders he later dropped back to finish just behind most of the group he’d attacked from.
“I still feel positively about this race,” he said, “because when you fight it out and give everything you have to the race, you’re not left with a feeling of ‘I'm not sure if I could have done better’. I think I‘m where I’m able to be and after all the setbacks that I have been through over recent days, I'm really just feeling satisfied and happy.”
Where Sastre is happy with his own performance, the same cannot be said for his Cervélo team. Other than Tondo, and Thor Hushovd – who will not be starting Wednesday’s time trial – the team has lost Philip Deignan and Stefan Denifl. Sastre feels that he deserves better team support, suggesting that his parting from the Cervélo TestTeam, en route to Team Geox, will not be a particularly amicable one.
“As I said at the beginning of this Vuelta and throughout all the month of August,” he said, “this was not the team that I would have liked and it isn't a balanced team in any sense. In fact, to date, three riders have already gone home and as the days goes by my opinion is simply reaffirmed.
“I asked for riders who knew that they would be in the Vuelta a España until the end,” he continued, “not just for a part of it. Without being backed by the team that I really wanted, playing a tactical battle is really complicated for a number of reasons.”
For the rest of the race, Sastre is wary of the two key stages: Wednesday’s time trial and Saturday’s stage to the Bola del Mundo. He obviously knows that good performances in both stages will be vital, but does not appear confident about his own prospects.
“From now on, there are five hard and very important days, with tomorrow’s time trial here in Peñafiel, with 46 hard kilometres and not one kilometre of rest. When you have to really push on continuously without being able to rest at all and when you're not a specialist, this can all mount up.
“To top all this off,” he added, “the climb up the Bola del Mundo next Saturday could also be a day with time differences if the weather is bad, as predicted. I think that I would find winning this Vuelta a España truly difficult, but I also think that the classification is more open now than ever.”