Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre will be a busy man in the coming weeks. Instead of heading to the beach, Sastre will hit the lucrative post-Tour criterium series this week where he’ll earn an estimated 45,000 euros per appearance in events in Belgium and Holland. On Wednesday, he’ll host a press conference on his return to Spain. Officials in his hometown of El Barraco have already planned a big fiesta to celebrate his victory and will name a street in his honor. After a short break to celebrate with his family, he’ll head to Beijing as part of Spain’s five-man team for the Summer Olympic Games. Then there’s no rest for the weary as Sastre will race the Vuelta a España, Aug. 30-Sept. 21. Sastre was second in last year’s Vuelta and will be one of the star attractions at the Spanish national tour. It’s still not confirmed if he’ll race the world road cycling championships the following weekend in Varese, Italy. By then, Sastre might be ready for a breather.

Carlos Sastre is poised to become the seventh Spanish rider to win the Tour de France. Barring disaster in Sunday’s final stage, Sastre will be crowned the winner of the 95th Tour after crossing the finish line on the Champs-Élysées. Sastre will become the third consecutive Spanish winner at the Tour. Other Spanish winners are Federico Bahamontes (1959), Luis Ocaña (1973), Pedro Delgado (1988), Miguel Indurain (1991-95), Oscar Pereiro (2006) and Alberto Contador (2007).

Carlos Sastre is heading to the Beijing Olympic Games after the Tour de France concludes Sunday. Whether or not he wins the Tour remains to be seen, but he’s earned the confidence of the Spanish national coach, Paco Antequera, who made Sastre part of the five-man squad. In addition to Sastre, Alejandro Valverde, Oscar Freire, Samuel and Alberto Contador will also head to China.

Carlos Sastre’s time up the 13.8-kilometer switchback climb up Alpe d’Huez was 39 minutes, 29 seconds. That’s the second slowest time since an official time was taken on the climb beginning in 1994. Giuseppe Guerini climbed it in 41:52 in 1999 at the end of a long, solo breakaway to hold the slowest climb since records were kept. The fastest time on the climb was set by Marco Pantani with in 36:50 in 1995. Seven-time Tour champ Lance Armstrong rode up in 37:36 during a climbing time trial in a 2004 individual time trial. 

Fränk Schleck was worried about his descending skills after suffering a horrible crash in last month’s Tour de Suisse. Schleck was poised to take the leader’s jersey at the Swiss tour when he crashed on a wet corner and catapulted over the guardrail into a ravine. Luckily for Schleck, he wasn’t seriously injured, but the nasty fall left him shaken. Ahead of the start of this year’s Tour, he was pulled aside by five-time Tour winner Bernhard Hinault, who offered a few words of advice. “Bernhard gave me a few pointers and told me some things to remember when I am going downhill. Those few minutes really paid off today. I was remembering what he told me and it helped,” Schleck said