Carlos Sastre

Carlos Sastre
Personal information
Full nameCarlos Sastre Candil
Born (1975-04-22) 22 April 1975 (age 49)[1]
Leganés, Spain
Height1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)[2]
Weight61 kg (134 lb; 9 st 8 lb)[2]
Team information
Current teamRetired
DisciplineRoad
RoleRider
Rider typeAll-rounder
Professional teams
1998–2001ONCE
2002–2008CSC–Tiscali
2009–2010Cervélo TestTeam
2011Geox–TMC
Major wins
Grand Tours
Tour de France
General classification (2008)
Mountains classification (2008)
3 individual stages (2003, 2006, 2008)
Giro d'Italia
2 individual stages (2009)
Vuelta a España
Mountains classification (2000)

Carlos Sastre Candil (pronounced [ˈkaɾ.los ˈsas.tɾe ˈkandil]; born 22 April 1975) is a former Spanish professional road bicycle racer and winner of the 2008 Tour de France. He consistently achieved outstanding results in the Vuelta a España and in the Tour de France. Sastre established himself as a strong and stable climbing specialist, and after working to improve his individual time trial skills, he became a contender for the top GC spots in the Grand Tours. In total, Sastre finished in the top ten of fifteen Grand Tours during his career, and finished on the podium of each of them. Sastre never tested positive for drugs, nor was he implicated in any doping investigation, even though he performed at the top level of cycling.[3]

Sastre continues to be widely regarded, following the Lance Armstrong affair, as one of the very few 'clean' riders to have won the Tour de France in the period from 1996 to 2013, as he has never been involved in a doping affair.[4] In fact, with respect to doping allegations and admissions that have surrounded Tour winners in recent decades, Sastre has been called "Don Limpio" ("Mr. Clean" in Spanish) by the press and others.[5]

  1. ^ "Ficha Técnica". www.carlossastre.com (in Spanish). Carlos Sastre. Archived from the original on 1 December 2008. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
  2. ^ a b "Cervélo TestTeam - Carlos Sastre - Rider Profile". Archived from the original on 2010-07-24. Retrieved 2020-09-14.
  3. ^ Ian Austen (15 February 2010). "2010 Tour de France Winner Found Guilty of Doping". New York Times. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
  4. ^ Daniel Friebe (22 November 2012). "Carlos Sastre exclusive: The forgotten Tour de France winner". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
  5. ^ "La prensa se rinde a Carlos Sastre". 29 July 2008. Retrieved 18 May 2018.