Carlos Sastre will return to racing for the first time in eight months at the Tour of Catalunya on Monday. The Cervélo TestTeam rider has not raced since finishing 17th in the Tour de France last July.
He's already a third of the way into a two year ban -- except that no one's banned him . . . .
Eight months seems like an extraordinary amount of time for a professional racer to not race. Even if he's been ill. And especially as he, presumably, still has designs on the big tours.