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Stage 20: Carlos Sastre Holds Off Cadel Evans to Secure Tour de France Win

Carlos Sastre rode an unexpectedly great time trial
to secure his hold on the yellow jersey.
Photo: Graham Watson

Red Bull is not the only thing that gives you wings. The Tour de France leader’s yellow jersey can have the same influence over the rider wearing it, and today Carlos Sastre rode the greatest time trial of his career to clinch the overall victory. After nearly a decade of trying, Carlos Sastre will ride into Paris tomorrow as the 2008 Tour de France Champion.

 

On paper, Sastre should have lost a lot more than 29 seconds to Cadel Evans in today’s 53-kilometer time trial, but as I’ve said before, the Tour de France is not won and lost on paper. Evans is a much stronger rider than Sastre when it comes to the highly-specialized individual effort of the time trial, but with the fatigue of three hard weeks of racing and the pressure of having to come from behind to erase a 1:34 deficit, Evans just wasn’t up to the task.

 

But today’s result wasn’t just due to a lackluster performance from Evans. Sastre deserves a lot of credit for riding better than he ever has in a long Tour de France time trial. Of course, there was more on the line this time compared to any other time trial of his career.

 

You can’t quantify the advantage that being the race leader provides an athlete, but it’s definitely real. Champions in all sports rise to the occasion when the victory is on the line. It’s what gives the quarterback the ability to deliver that perfect last pass, the basketball player the confidence to shoot the winning basket at the buzzer, and the golfer the steady hand to sink the winning putt on the 18^th green. In the Tour de France, the yellow jersey gives its wearer the added motivation to pour just a little more power into the pedals, to push a little harder into the red zone, and to pull out performances that defy predictions.

 

Carlos Sastre wasn’t the only rider today to benefit from wearing a leader’s jersey. Bernhard Kohl rode today in the polka dot jersey as the leader in the King of the Mountains competition. But even more important today, he was racing as the second-placed rider in the event, with a chance of standing on the final podium in Paris. Kohl is not known for being a superior time trial rider, but he pulled off a tremendous ride today to finish ninth on the stage. Cadel Evans rode fast enough to overcome the one-second deficit he had to Kohl, but the German rode fast enough to capture third place in the overall standings. For man who came to the Tour de France with no expectations to finish on the podium or as the King of the Mountains, Bernhard Kohl has emerged as the greatest revelation of the 2008 Tour de France.

 

Just a little farther down on the leader board, American Christian Vande Velde put forth a huge effort in an attempt to win the final time trial and perhaps move all the way up to third overall. As he has since the Tour began, he rode a very strong race and finished fourth on the day. With Frank Schleck falling from second to sixth overall with a poor time trial performance, Vande Velde moved up one position and will finish the 2008 Tour de France in fifth place.

 

This year was the first time Christian Vande Velde went to the Tour de France as a team leader with an eye toward finishing within the top 10. Now that he’s proven himself strong and skilled enough to contend for the yellow jersey, he will undoubtedly return to the Tour de France in 2009 as a contender for the overall victory. His performance, and the strong performances put forth by his Garmin-Chipotle teammates, all but guarantee that the American Garmin-Chipotle team – which was given one of two wildcard entries into this year’s race - will be invited to the Tour de France again in 2009.

 

With just one more day of racing left in the 2008 Tour de France, all of the jersey competitions are wrapped up. Carlos Sastre is the Tour de France Champion, Bernhard Kohl is the King of the Mountains, and Andy Schleck is the Best Young Rider. The team classification is going to be won by the CSC-Saxo Bank squad, by a long shot. And even though there are still points to be won in intermediate sprints and on the finishing line in Paris tomorrow, Oscar Freire will be the winner in the green jersey points competition. All that’s left is for everyone to safely reach the finish line tomorrow and one more high-speed dash to the line.

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