Professional Cycling For the Fans - Sastre: This tour is boring..

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/sastre-blasts-the-press-for-disrespect

Prodded what he means by "boring", Sastre replied: "What is boring? There's no attacks, no tactics, nothing… Just a strong team, one rider – one of the best in the world – will win the race, that's all.

dang.... Well, do something then, Sastre!

He does have a point. If there were like 12 teams pretty evenly matched you'd never know what was going to happen on any stage. But that's not the way it works...

I say Saxo was pretty strong Sunday.

Richard

But where's the competitive spirit? It showed up on Verbier, in the final kilometers, 2 weeks too late!

I dunno, this year's tour has had its moments, but so far I prefer this year's Giro. More mountaintop finishes, more attacks, and Menchov's last-minute TT wipeout....

Organizers completely blew it on this tour. Horrible course. Reltively speaking one of the easiest tours ever.

This years Giro was a much better race.

Horrible course, horrible decision to not limit time gains in TTT, massive disparity in talent levels across teams. I agree with Sastre. And there isn't much he can do about it; he's just fighting for a podium finish, he knows there's no hope at yellow.

i have no issues with what sastre said and agree with him on many points... this tour has been boring, outside of maybe 45 minutes total of exciting racing. i like sastre's low key, humble attitude and thought it was telling that he allowed his teammates the freedom to ride their own race. maybe b/c he knew deep down he could not beat contador, so why deny his teammates a chance for their own glory... now doesn't that sound like something a certain someone probably should have been doing all this time? i'll be pulling for this guy on ventoux and think he might be able to hang with contador on the long climb.

Wow, if that article is at all an accurate portrayal of Carlos' attitude, I'm just amazed that a returning champion would just roll over so easily. If he was truly bored, or that sure of the outcome if Astana were allowed their favored tactics, why wouldn't he at least attempt to stir things up? Come on Carlos!

And some of the BF membership were wondering why the press haven't given the guy more airtime. It's 'cause he's apparently a man already defeated.

For a guy with Sastre's specific skill set, the design of the race and course profile are very significant. This year's mountain stages are just not hard enough, long enough and regular enough for him to force a selection.

Do they not produce cheese in Spain to go with the whine?

If Sastre thinks he is not getting his due, he needs to show what he's deserving of on the road. Or STFU.

I agree with Sastre. Before the tour even started he was on the defensive with insults from you-know-who. Yeah, that guy that was promoting his new book, putting down Sastre in the process.

Do they not produce cheese in Spain to go with the whine?

If Sastre thinks he is not getting his due, he needs to show what he's deserving of on the road. Or STFU.

+1

The same for Hincapie.

Sastre should know if the Tour has been boring or not. He's been watching it with the rest of us. I'm with those above, why doesn't he do something about it? One strong team and relative parity among most of the contenders makes for some predictability. The daily breakaways have been fun though as have the sprinter team dynamics.

I think his only valid complaint is not being permitted to wear the yellow jersey on the opening stage. I thought from the outset that the concept of possibly having the race decided on stage 20 on Mt. Ventoux was either going to be sheer genius, or anti-climactic.

There have been several very memorable stages already, and there's a whole week left. Boring??? If so, it's only because nobody's been able to match Contador on climbs. Thank goodness not everyone has given up already.

Maybe Sastre is using the media as stated in the article to shake up the Astana camp a bit more?

I recall an awfull lot of folks commenting on the suspense of week one. Perhaps, what Carlos saw as boring the rest of the world saw as interesting, if not exciting. Granted alot of that revolved around one team and the expectations of them. But still, it was up to Carlos and a few others to open things up, and they, didn't. However, it's not over yet and Ventoux may prove to be more exciting than any of us could hope for. One thing is for sure, with fewer mountain top finishes, it puts a premium on those that there are, and assures us that someone will attack and that something should happen. But, it'll probably be Contador powering away from everyone, again.

I've been a big fan of Cervelo this year but I was pretty turned off by Sastre's attitude in the article. Still, I think that his reaction was one of frustration with the media portrayal of the Astana Drama more than of the race itself. I think (like many others) he is tired of hearing about Armstrong vs. Contador. It felt like that frustration just spilled over into the interview and unfortunately ended up sounding like a pouting kid more than a defending champion.

This years Giro was a much better race.

I agree. I about fell off of my chair when Menchov went down with a km to go in the ITT. Di Luca put up a great fight, though.

****ty course

I've been a big fan of Cervelo this year but I was pretty turned off by Sastre's attitude in the article. Still, I think that his reaction was one of frustration with the media portrayal of the Astana Drama more than of the race itself. I think (like many others) he is tired of hearing about Armstrong vs. Contador. It felt like that frustration just spilled over into the interview and unfortunately ended up sounding like a pouting kid more than a defending champion.


And were you equally turned off by Armstrong's comments about Sastre and the other riders before the Tour started? This is really what precipitated Sastre's frustrations.

I recall an awfull lot of folks commenting on the suspense of week one. Perhaps, what Carlos saw as boring the rest of the world saw as interesting, if not exciting. Granted alot of that revolved around one team and the expectations of them. But still, it was up to Carlos and a few others to open things up, and they, didn't. However, it's not over yet and Ventoux may prove to be more exciting than any of us could hope for. One thing is for sure, with fewer mountain top finishes, it puts a premium on those that there are, and assures us that someone will attack and that something should happen. But, it'll probably be Contador powering away from everyone, again.

Good point Sir, and I think we can all recall that there was a point where Sastre was able to accelerate to catch up to the main group. This to me is an indication that Sastre hasn't gone full throttle just yet.

On the next few stages I see Contador at a disadvantage, just because the next couple of mountain stages are not mountain top finishes. But one would have to gain a nice advantage on the climb any how, so perhaps I can see why most think Contador has this thing in the bag. It's all going to be about Ventoux and the ITT most likely.

um...b's & g's, it's not over yet. contador looks to be the strongest but could have a bad day or
wipe out on a descent. we'll see what the schlecks, evans, nibali, wiggins, etc. can bring into
the last week. i know sastre will bring something; historically, he does well in the last week
of grand tours. contador has a unfortunate tendency of slowing down a little at the end of the
gt's. fortunately for him, his attacks are so demoralizing that many just seem satisfied to
fight for 2nd & 3rd. the tt on stage 18 could see him losing time to some of the contenders
but not the schlecks. you just know that armstrong would love to regain some of his lost
time during the tt to further exacerbate contador's insecurities. yes, this year's giro was great
but that's been the recent trend (2004, 2005, 2007-2009).

The Giro has been a much better race for years.

clarified.


Do they not produce cheese in Spain to go with the whine?

If Sastre thinks he is not getting his due, he needs to show what he's deserving of on the road. Or STFU.

you miss the point.

Giro was much better this year, thanks to Rabobank's own Russian Muscle Man Denis Menchov, and the excellent effort by De Luca(hop I spelled that right). It had a dramatic end to it as well, when Menchov slipped on the last time trial, but was luckily able to recover, and maintain his lead.

Sastre's comments about cancer are interesting.

Sastre is a sore loser it seems.