Tour champ Carlos Sastre hopes to overcome the flu before his California start

By VeloNews.Com

Two days before his debut in the Tour of California, Carlos Sastre is recovering from a bout of flu, his Cervélo team reported Wednesday.

The Tour de France champion has been training in the United States ahead of his season debut, but despite the flu bug, Sastre plans to race.

“It has been nearly a week since I’ve ridden as I was hit hard by the flu and I’m still getting over it now”, Sastre said in a team release. “Until now, my preparation was going well, but this setback will prevent me from performing as I would have liked in this American race.”.

Carlos Sastre admitted he is “going to suffer a lot.”

“The team has trained well and my team mates are ready to take on the race with motivation and enthusiasm,” he said. “The most important thing is that the sun will shine down on us during this race so that we can keep moving forward.”

Despite being under the weather, Sastre visited the San Diego wind tunnel on Tuesday, running aerodynamics tests with his new bike.

He will attend a press conference in Sacramento on Friday before his debut in this year’s Tour of California.

FILED UNDER: Road