Carlos Sastre leaving Cervélo TestTeam for Geox
The 2008 Tour de France champ still plans to ride the Vuelta for Cervélo.
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Former Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre announced Monday he will leave Cervélo TestTeam for Geox next season.
“The trust that they’ve placed in me since the very first conversations has been the most important factor that has pushed me towards this new project,” the Spaniard said in a statement.
“But the background and experience of its leaders has also had an influence as they’ve been in cycling for years and years.”
Sastre, 35, said the switch to Geox, sponsored by the Italian shoe manufacturer of the same name, “will not alter anything” regarding his participation with Cervélo in the Vuelta a España, which begins on August 28.
“What’s more, it is spurring me on even more to fight it out in a race that I really like and which I feel a lot of respect and fondness for,” he said.
Sastre joined Cervélo in 2009 after several seasons with CSC, with whom he won the Tour de France in 2008. He began his career with ONCE in 1998.
Geox was a co-sponsor with Lampre this season, but has confirmed a deal to back the Spanish-based Footon-Servetto squad with a budget reportedly as high as 50 million Euros over five years.
The team is managed by Mauro Gianetti and sport director Joxean Matxin Fernández.
(Related: A list of recent confirmed ProTour transfers, extensions and retirements)