Carlos Sastre Wins the Tour de France

                                                                                         

And the Tour de France has a new champion… The professional cyclist Carlos Sastre became last Sunday the third Spaniard to win one of the crown jewels in cycling -- the Tour de France. This also became another great sports achievement for his country during the present year.

Sastre managed to win the 95th edition of the most well known cycling race in the world after competing without problems next to his squad during the last phase of the race, which consisted in a 143 kilometers stage in
Étampes.

Sastre's victory continued the line of triumphs of his countrymen Oscar Pereiro in 2006 and Alberto Contador in the 2007. "It is a dream come true, I waited a lot of time before this," expressed Sastre. The 33-years-old CSC racer obtained the yellow jersey after winning on Wednesday the 17th stage of the Tour, a section full of ascents in the Alps.

Astana team's rider, Contador, was not able to participate in this year competition due to the doping scandals involving him as well as his team.

The Australian Cadel Evans ended second in the general classification, 58 seconds behind Sastre. Evans assured the victory on Saturday after resisting his pursuers against the clock, a very exciting last moment which paved the road to the Champs Elysee.

The Austrian Bernhard Kohl finished third,1:13 minutes behind the winner. He kept the white and red jersey along with the honors of being the best climber in the competition.

Close to the end of the last stage the Spaniard's team began to fall behind while Sastre remained with the group of cyclist that were the closest to Evans and Kohl, suddenly Sastre began to gain a considerable advantage in general.

After the latest edition of the Tour de France, the incredible success of Spain during 2008 continues as another Spaniard Oscar Freire kept the green jersey, which is given to the racer of better action in sprints.

This Sunday's victory is shared with the Danish Bjarne Riis, CSC general manager, who gave Sastre plenty of support and the leadership of the team instead of Frank and Andy Schleck. These two riders had to sacrifice their possibilities to help Sastre since he was the one with best chances to obtain the title. Anyhow, the Schleck brothers were given the white jersey which is an accomplishment to those young riders that excelled in the Tour.

Other cyclist, the Belgian Gert Steegmans of the Quick Step team, was the winner of the last race of the event in the final sprint, arriving before the Germans Gerald Ciolek and Freire. On the other hand, the Colombian Leonardo Duque closed his participation in Paris remaining in the last positions.

Additional matters regarding doping also struck this edition of Tour de France; the Spaniards Manuel Beltrán and Moises Duenas Nevado as well as the Italian Riccardo Riccò, tested positive for the prohibited substance EPO. The three riders withdrew from the competition as soon as they were advised of the latest results obtained from their blood samples. Likewise, the Kazakh Dmitriy Fofonov was the last of the cyclists in violating the anti-doping rules after testing positive right after the 18 stage of the Tour.

About the author:
Cindy Ferguson is a high-ranking writer on the Tour de France for the sports betting industry. You can also find more of her work at Instant Action Sports UK. Feel free to reprint this article in its whole on your site, make sure to leave all links in place and do not modify any of the content.

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