Why Sastre won

jhuskey said:

There are many variables ,of course but Sastre has proved to be a consistent rider in the post and has favored skills in the steeper stages.
Evans comes in at about 140 lbs while Sastre is around 130, definitely closer to being a pure climber. Sastre had a better team that helped contain the pace at the level they wanted.
Evans appears to have had a really bad final TT. Looking at his past peformances he was at least 60 seconds off.
Some think this years TDF was boring, but aren't the predictable races of the past what made them boring. That's what I always read.
Seven lead changes , no defined winner until the final TT, some great moments and some lame moments.
Boring? Hell , I can't wait until next July.

Reasonable points :

A quick look at Sastre's placings in the TDF and Vuelta also play their part in my opinion.

TDF

2002 : 10th on GC
2003 : 9th on GC
2004 : 8th on GC
2005 : 21st on GC
2006 : 3rd on GC
2007 : 4th on GC

Vuelta

2004 : 6th on GC
2005 : 2nd on GC
2006 : 4th on GC
2007 : 2nd on GC

That is pretty consistent performing by Sastre in grand tours for the past 5 - 6 seasons by anyones standards.

The fact that Sastre had a substantially stronger squad of domestiques all plays to an advantage over Evans.
O'Grady, Voigt, Canc, Arvesen, Sorensen and the Schlecks : they all worked at various times for each other and the team.

Sastre's uncle was/is a noted coach too : he was coach to Jose Maria Jimenez when he (Jimenez) was an amateur as well as Sastre.

In my uneducated opinion i think that, to a degree, Evans lost it rather than Sastre winning it. I think that the pressure got to Evans too much and he ended up using up too much emotional energy. At the end of the day one of the keys to winning the tour is being able to recover between stages. To do this i think it is necessary to stay calm. Head-butting and slapping suggest that Evans wasnt that calm in between the stages. Cant say i blame him really - riding your nuts off for 5 hours and then being asked silly questions, people surrounding you and someone poking you arent relaxcing circumstances. However, it comes with the territory unfortunately. I also wonder whether Evans got too worked up about being in the yellow jersey.

But he came second last year as well but did a better time trial? Last year he wasnt the favourite going into it the tour de france i think? Also the focus was more on the Vinokourov and Rasmussen drug scandals during the race rather than him.

They call him "Planet Carlos" in the peleton. He is very well respected. Apparently David Miller rode up to Sastre in the first week and said "Hey Carlos when are you going to attack ?"......... Sastre looked back at Miller, rode a few more revolutions then looked back at him and said: "Patience David, patience." then rode on...... legend.

limerickman said:

Reasonable points :

A quick look at Sastre's placings in the TDF and Vuelta also play their part in my opinion.

TDF

2002 : 10th on GC
2003 : 9th on GC
2004 : 8th on GC
2005 : 21st on GC
2006 : 3rd on GC
2007 : 4th on GC

Vuelta

2004 : 6th on GC
2005 : 2nd on GC
2006 : 4th on GC
2007 : 2nd on GC

That is pretty consistent performing by Sastre in grand tours for the past 5 - 6 seasons by anyones standards.

The fact that Sastre had a substantially stronger squad of domestiques all plays to an advantage over Evans.
O'Grady, Voigt, Canc, Arvesen, Sorensen and the Schlecks : they all worked at various times for each other and the team.

Sastre's uncle was/is a noted coach too : he was coach to Jose Maria Jimenez when he (Jimenez) was an amateur as well as Sastre.

agreed on the number of lead changes, csc's/sastre's masterpiece on the alpe, and so on, but i think some of us are finding the dominant style of g.t. too tame and predictable. most of these teams seem to be sitting back and waiting for the other to make "the" mistake for them to capitalise on & then riding to protect. rabo (menchov) really disappointed me with this style this year [beginning to understand why the chicken was a bad teammate & chafed under menchov's leadership]. i'm more than convinced that the radios need to disappear, if only because it might yield more of those big mistakes which become the talk of later years.

Evans is only 140lbs? Interesting, he seems heavier then that. Evans had no team to speak of, CSC wore him out stage after stage and he was clearly having some stress issues. Say what you want about LA and his doping, but he was good at handling the tour and what it takes to keep it together.

slovakguy said:

agreed on the number of lead changes, csc's/sastre's masterpiece on the alpe, and so on, but i think some of us are finding the dominant style of g.t. too tame and predictable. most of these teams seem to be sitting back and waiting for the other to make "the" mistake for them to capitalise on & then riding to protect. rabo (menchov) really disappointed me with this style this year [beginning to understand why the chicken was a bad teammate & chafed under menchov's leadership]. i'm more than convinced that the radios need to disappear, if only because it might yield more of those big mistakes which become the talk of later years.