Team CSC Saxo Bank Defiant As Carlos Sastre Fears Time Trial Test
NANTES, France, July 7, 2008 (AFP) - The first big test of the Tour de
France for the yellow jersey contenders may be putting the fear of God into
Carlos Sastre.
But his manager at the CSC team, Denmark’s 1996 Tour winner Bjarne Riis,
believes they will make up any time shortfall for their yellow jersey
contender once the peloton heads steadily up into the mountains in the coming
days.
Tuesday’s time trial around nearby Cholet is likely to see the yellow
jersey switch hands.
Held on a rolling course which is likely to favor the big specialists, the
climbers - even those who are good in the race against the clock, like
Alejandro Valverde and Cadel Evans - will struggle to dominate.
Britain’s David Millar is quietly building hopes of ending his eight-year
wait to pull on the golden tunic, and is being pitted against CSC’s reigning
world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara.
For Riis, the most important thing is to make sure Sastre - for whom the
time trial is a weak point - limits his losses.
Riis believes Tuesday’s race against the clock will leave some yellow
jersey favorites with a major disadvantage.
“I think there will be between one and two minutes, definitely, more
towards two minutes than one minute. I think they expect to lose time,” said
the Dane, who admits that CSC’s fight for the big prize will be almost
exclusively fought in the mountains.
“If we want to win the Tour we have to make the difference in the mountains
because we know we will lose time in the time trials. But if Valverde and
Evans and these guys want to win the Tour they absolutely have to make the
difference in the time trials.”
Sastre’s teammate Stuart O’Grady agreed, but said he hoped Sastre would
limit the damage.
“It should be a bit of a blow out for the climbers, I know Carlos is not
really looking forward to it,” he said, admitting it would be a bonus if the
Spaniard, whom he is chaperoning throughout the race, lost less than a minute
and a half.
“Anything under that he would be pretty happy with that, I’d say.”
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