Spaniard Carlos Sastre won stage 17 of the 2008 Tour de France on July 23 to strip the leader's yellow jersey from CSC Saxo Bank teammate Frank Schleck.
Mountain specialist Sastre spent most of the day among the other main Tour contenders and attacked on the final climb of the day, L'Alpe d'Huez, to win the third Tour de France stage in his career.
On the mountain where Lance Armstrong effectively won two of his record seven Tour titles, Sastre finally staked his bid to win the race. Despite finishing fourth overall in 2007 and third in 2006, Sastre had never worn the yellow jersey before.
“We saw a great stage and a team work perfectly together. Without the support of Frank and Andy [Schleck], this moment would not have been possible. I am happy for many things," Sastre said at the end of the stage, as quoted by the Tour's official website letour.com.
“I was suffering a lot, man. That climb was hard! They say that when you’re suffering it’s hard to enjoy the moment but when you are gaining time on your rivals, there’s a lot of satisfaction that comes from that. It helps you push as much as you can and try to go as fast as you can," he said.
CSC Saxo Bank once again proved their credentials as the strongest team in this year's Tour, with no less than six riders in the leading group at the foot of the final climb. From the very start, Sastre showed no concern as to whether anyone attempted to latch on to his attack, powering through the 14km and 21 turns of the classic ascent.
Frank Schleck finished two minutes and 13 seconds behind Sastre, together with the rest of the riders currently in the top ten. He dropped to second in the general classification, one minute and 24 seconds behind his team leader.
Austrian Bernhard Kohl is third, one minute and 33 seconds behind, followed by Australian Cadel Evans one second further back. Russia's Denis Menshov is fifth on two minutes and 39 seconds.
On the day that featured the last three of the eight highest-category climbs of this year's Tour, Kohl gathered enough points in the king of the mountains classification to all but ensure that, barring any accidents, he would wear the polka-dot at the finish of the race in Paris.
Among sprinters, Oscar Freire will continue wearing the green jersey of the leader in the points classification.
After the gruelling 210.5km stage between Embrun and L'Alpe d'Huez, the Tour will leave the high mountains and follow up with 196.5km between Bourg-d'Oisans and Saint-Étienne.
The last chance for a major shake-up in the standings is the time trial on July 26, where Evans is one of the favourites and could regain the yellow jersey he wore earlier in the race.
For now, Sastre is not concerned with that, though. “I don’t know about my gains and how it is for the time trial on Saturday. I want to enjoy the moment now and celebrate with my team-mates because they did a fantastic job," he said.
