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Sastre heads to the Alps

By VeloNews.com
Published: Jun. 15, 2009

Defending Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre is headed to Switzerland to preview some of the key mountain stages for next month’s race.

Sastre, fresh off winning two stages at the Giro d’Italia and finishing fourth overall, will join teammates from his Cervélo TestTeam to train in the Alps until Friday.

“The riders who will dispute the Tour are going to take some deep training rides and personally I want to review some of the climbs that I don’t know of the stages that will be featured in the Alps,” Sastre said before traveling to Geneva on Monday.

The Spanish climber said he’s on track to defend his yellow jersey in what’s his top goal for the 2009 season.

“I hope I can arrive at the start in Monaco in the best possible form,” Sastre said. “The course this year has some complicated stages in the first week.”

Sastre won’t race between the Giro and the Tour, but hinted he might decide to participate in the Spanish national road race championships June 28 in Cantabria in northern Spain.

Several of his Cervélo teammates will also be taking part, including Iñigo Cuesta, José Angel Gómez Marchante, Xavi Florencio, Oscar Pujol and Joaquín Novoa.

Cervélo also released its short list for the upcoming Tour, narrowing the list down to 12 candidates for nine spots on what will be the team’s first Tour appearance.

Joining Sastre on the Tour list are Cuesta, Florencio, Simon Gerrans, Volodymir Gustov, Heinrich Haussler, Thor Hushovd, Andreas Klier, Brett Lancaster, Gomez Marchante, Gabriel Rasch and Hayden Roulston.

Cervélo TestTeam has already had a strong season with 14 victories, including four stage wins at last month's Giro d'Italia.

“We have had a dream start to our inaugural season,” said Cervélo TestTeam's managing director, Thomas Campana. “We are looking forward to our first Tour de France. Carlos knows he has the entire team's support to help him reach his goals. We would also like to win a couple of other stages on the way to Paris and with our top sprinter Thor Hushovd and Heinrich Haussler anything is possible.”