“It’s been a really wearing day and I haven’t been feeling at my best”
Wednesday, 08 September 2010
Pal (Andorra). Despite it not being his best day, Carlos Sastre finished tenth in today’s stage, 32 seconds behind Igor Antón, moving up four places in the general classification, now in thirteenth place, 3:03 behind the Basque cyclist. Sastre made this assessment of the day at the finish line in Pal:
“Well today we had the second mountain finish. It has been a very fast day and at the start we were riding against very strong headwinds. That meant that it took a long time for the breakaway to happen. In the end two riders broke through and rode practically the entire route ahead whilst behind, different teams started trying to control the race and make it harder, given that nearly the whole stage was accompanied by side winds”, said the Cervélo team leader.
For Sastre, today “has been a very wearing stage, as the road was uphill throughout and it wasn’t at all comfortable”. “In the last part, for the first time in a long time in this valley that goes to Andorra, there was an amazing tailwind and then in the last part, the last 15 or 30 kilometres, the wind changed direction and came in from the front. That meant that the attacks took place a little later”, he added.
On a personal note, the Spaniard admits that “I didn’t feel at my best but Tondo has done a sensational stage, coming in in third place and moving up another place in the general classification of this year’s Vuelta a España”. “I tried to lose as little time as possible and Iñigo Cuesta helped me to achieve this, keeping close to me all the time”, concluded Sastre.
