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Sastre thrives on audacity

Internet, undated
Out of 3,500 kilometersand three weeks of racing, the 2008 Tour de France was
won in a split second at the foot of the race's most prestigious climb. Near the end of the 17th stage, 33-year-old Carlos Sastre boldly took off on his own up the 13.8-km climb to Alpe d'Huez, leaving in his wake Cadel Evans of Australia, Austria's Bernhard Kohl and the Russian Denis Menchov.
It was an audacious attack that might have ended badly, because it is a gruelling climb, with an average slope of 7.9 per cent and covering 21 hairpin curves, and is therefore difficult to carry out alone, especially if you start at the foot of the mountain, as Sastre did.
Sastre later said he had to attack early on the climb because of Evans's superiority in the time trial that was to be run three days later.
"At the beginning of the Alpe d'Huez, I decided on my own to attack. I had to take a big risk," hesaid.
But the risk paid off by giving Sastre the race leader's yellow jersey, and he defended it all the way to Paris.
Evans, who also finished second
to a Spaniard inlastyear'sTour, was expected to make up a gap of 1 minute 34 seconds in Saturday's long race against the clock, but he fell badly short and managed to make up only 29 seconds on the liighly motivated Sastre.
Even Evans, who claimed Saturday not to be too disappointed. saluted the Spaniard's attack on the Alpe d'Huez. "He had the legs,” he said.
But the 31-yearold Australian also noted, with regret and perhaps envy, that Sastre possessed another advantage over him: his team.
"What made the difference was also that (Team) CSC had a very strong team. For three weeks, every time I turned around I had one of them next to me," he said.
By contrast. Evans’s Silence-Lotto team was little in evidence, especially in the mountains, where it pays to have a friend's slipstream in front of you. Evans admitted as much: "Maybe I should have had another teammate in the moun-
Team CSC, which was put together and managed by the Dane Bjarne Riis - who is still listed as the 1996 Tour winner although he admitted to doping - was by far the strongest and most influential teamintheTour.
If Evans lacked "legs" in
Saturday's time trial, it was primarily because the pace was always pushed by Team CSC, whether it was being led by two-time world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara, the impressive Australian and 2007 Paris-Roubaix winner Stuart O'Grady or the brothers Schleck. Andy and Frank, ofLuxembourg.
It was a performance reminiscent of the teams that supported seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong, who took over a race and shaped it to their leader's needs.
Sastre was appreciative. "The most important thing was the confi -dence that Bjarne Riis and my other team managers and the other members of my team gave me," he said. "They always believed in me. Every' decision was taken together. My teammates gave 1,000 percent for me."
The teamwork paid off for other members of the team, with Team CSC winning three of the race's five titles. In addition to Sastre's overall championship. Andy Schleck captured the white jersey for the Tour's best under-25 rider and Team CSC won the team championship
In addition. Frank Schleck wore the yellow jersey for two stages, until Sastre captured it for good -with a bold individual move.