Sastre improving

Carlos Sastre (CSC) had a relatively good day to finish second behind Valverde in the seventh stage to Alto de El Morredero. "I had a good feeling today, and it was nice to be able to stay all the way up front," he said to team-csc.com. "We're still well positioned in the overall standings, which of course is very important. Today's finish was tailor made for Valverde and there was not much the rest of us could do, but I'm very happy with our performance out there."

"It was a perfect day for us. We kept a low profile on purpose, which turned out to be good tactics," added team director Kim Andersen. "Carlos is simply brilliant at preserving his energy, and he had lots of strength left at the end. We're right where we want to be now in the overall standings ahead of the big mountain stage on Sunday."

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