Sastre claims Riis is trying to make him lose Vuelta?!

donrhummy

Sastre has since denied saying this but apparently every newsgroup in spain is reporting it...

http://www.velonews.com/article/83352/t ... manager-is

Sastre: “If I was physically bad, I wouldn’t be third. One has to be realistic. There is a person who has harmed and divided the team from the beginning. He’s still doing it. And that person hasn’t wanted that this team do anything in the Vuelta. That was his intention. He has harmed everyone. It’s in his conscience. I don’t have any complaint about the team or the teammates. They have done everything that is possible. They’ve been in the breakaways. You have to overcome a lot of things, but it’s necessary that the person who has to push is really pushing. But that this person, far from pushing, that person has been dividing.”

The reporter asks, “You’re referring to Riis?”

Sastre responds, “He’s the maximum leader of the team, no?”

He also gives a backhand slap/compliment to Contador:

“He’s not on another level. Things have gone in his favor and he’s been able to benefit from that. He’s a rider who won a Tour that no one expected him to, a Giro without media pressure and who’s now supporting this pressure in the Vuelta. He’s a rider of the present and above all for the future.”

secretsqirrel

Might have to get Victorponf to give a interpretation on that one.

Won't be the first time stuff has been misrepresented through dodgy translation and reporting.

BTW, sorry Donrhummy, I have assumed that you are not a Spanish speaker, if I am wrong, apologies :oops:

alex16zx

<<If I was physically bad, I wouldn’t be third.......There is a person who has harmed and divided the team from the beginning. He’s still doing it. And that person hasn’t wanted that this team do anything in the Vuelta. That was his intention. He has harmed everyone. It’s in his conscience.>>

<<He’s the maximum leader of the team, no?>>

I've just read Sastre's Spanish on this site: http://www.abc.es/20080919/deportes-cic ... 80919.html

And can confirm that the translation is a totally literal one with no ambiguities, at least as I understand it. The only changes to make it 100% literal would be 'there is a person who has done harm' rather than 'there is a person who has harmed', and 'He's still doing it' would be 'He continues to do harm'.

There's also this quote, which I can give a (very rough!) translation of:

«Son muchas cosas las que me han pasado por la cabeza en los últimos 25 días y no es fácil a veces asumir decisiones de otras personas, acatarlas y sobre todo vivir con ellas. Eso termina cansando mucho, y más cuando vienes de ganar una carrera como el Tour y cuando has dedicado tu vida al resto del mundo. Cuando te dedicas a tí mismo, eso ya no le gusta a otras personas. Eso machaca mucho y te agota psicológicamente».

'There are many things which have passed through my mind (head) in the last 25 days and it's sometimes not easy to take the decisions of other people, to obey them and above all to live with them. That eventually gets tiring, especially when you go on to win a race like the Tour and when you have dedicated your life to everything else. When you come to yourself, that already you don't like other people. That's very crushing and psychologically tiring'.

Now that certainly could misrepresent him! The first half makes a lot more sense than the second half but none of it is great!

gabriel959

That's a really excelent translation but I am going to slighlty modify the second half if you don't mind...

"That eventually gets tiring, especially when you go on to win a race like the Tour and when you have dedicated your life to everyone else. When you give the best of yourself, that is not liked by other people. That's very crushing and psychologically tiring."

By the way, the original interview is in El Mundo ...

http://www.elmundo.es/elmundodeporte/2008/09/18/ciclismo/1221745637.html

Also, Sastre HAS NOT denied saying this.

alex16zx

Thanks for that, I couldn't make head nor tail of that second-to-last sentence!

afx237vi

Cuesta has come out and said something similar now.

http://www.marca.com/edicion/marca/cicl ... 66401.html

It must be bad if Sastre's got angry!

Doobz

I watched a CSC movie a while back and it shows Bjarne as being very unstable and very hard to get along with when things are not going his way.


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0465556/

vermooten

Presumably:

(a) Riis has got to get complete loyalty from the Schlecks.
(b) Riis considers Sastre as expedible now since he's leaving.
therefore
(c) Riis can fck around with Sastre if it is necessary to do so.

And 3rd in the Vuelta after winning the Tour is hardly to be sniffed at - it still means that Nygard has a great message for the press.

secretsqirrel

Cheers Gabriel & Alex for the interpretations.

Can't please the new sponsors Saxo Bank, they must be wondering what sort of team they have got themselves involved with!

I must admit, I would have credited Riis with a little more sense, Sastre has done a lot of good work for him over the years.

donrhummy

Thanks for the great translations!

Velonews is reporting that Sastre has denied the comments:
http://www.velonews.com/article/83352/t ... manager-is

Team CSC-Saxo Bank team spokesman Brian Nygaard said he had heard about Sastre’s comments, but suggested they were “either taken out of context or taken during an emotional moment.”

“I could see no reason why a team manager wouldn’t want the team to do well in a race. That’s his job and that’s how he makes his money,” Nygaard told VeloNews. “I’ve known Carlos long enough and it doesn’t sound like something he would say.”

Nygaard later spoke personally to Sastre, who confirmed that he had an interview with EFE, but denied making the comments about Riis.

That is second hand but my guess is Sastre's going to claim his comments were taken out of context, which is the usual go-to when you make comments, they're made public and you go, "Oh, crap! That doesn't sound as good as it did in my head!"

Noodley

Sastre is really going to have to learn to speak properly. His sentences are very short and stunted. Morse code-esque.

donrhummy

Have any of the spanish papers done followup with either Riis or Sastre?