Reigning Tour de France Champion Carlos Sastre his goals set for the coming season. The primary goal for the Cervélo TestTeam captain is to repeat his 2008 win in the world’s biggest bike race. He will have his work cut out for him as Team Astana’s co-captain Lance Armstrong has both the aspirations and the firepower to fill up the podium.
Sastre isn’t sure if he will take a start in the Giro d’Italia. Sastre told the Spanish sports newspaper AS, “If I ride the Giro, then I will also fight for victory.” Very few riders have done the Giro-Tour double, and most believe that going full-on in the Italian race can adversely impact a riders performance in July. The last rider to successfully complete the Giro-Tour double was Italy’s Marco Pantani in 1998, the same year of the Festina doping scandal.
The 33-year-old Spaniard’s quest to win the Tour de France will begin in February at the Tour of California, although his team does not yet have an official invitation. Like most Tour contenders, he will look to peak for the Ardennes classics. “After the Tour of California I ride in the Castilla y Leon, Tour of the Basque Country as well as the classics Fleche Wallone and Liege-Bastogne-Liege.”