CSC's Carlos Sastre rolled away from the favorites on L'Alpe d'Huez on Wednesday, winning the classic Tour de France stage and taking the yellow jersey from teammate Frank Schleck.

Sastre (CSC-Saxo Bank) attacked at the base of the famous climb and built up a lead of about two minutes by the top, while most of the contenders for the overall victory, including Schleck, marked each other. Only in the final 3km did the GC favorites began to work to whittle down Sastre's lead, with time-trial strongmen Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) and Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Chipotle) hoping to keep him with striking distance going into Saturday's crucial time trial. Both men finished 2:15 behind Sastre, and Evans now sits fourth overall at 1:34 back, while Vande Velde is sixth at 4:41.

Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) attacked the favorites in the final kilometer to take second, and Andy Schleck (CSC-Saxo Bank) was third.

CSC-Saxo Bank chief Bjarne Riis could not have been happier with how the stage played out.

2008 Tour de France, stage 17: The Alpe

Photo: file

"We knew we had to attack to drop everyone. When Sastre attacked first at the bottom, he was really strong. Our plan came together perfectly and I'm proud of every one of my team," he said. "Whether Carlos wins on Saturday or not doesn't matter. He is already a champion."

The Tour's most famous climb

L'Alpe d'Huez is the Tour's most famous climb, and this year — with a tight GC race, a difficult route preceding the final climb, and perfect weather — it contained all the ingredients of another stage for the history books.

TdF '08 - 17: The Galibier

Photo: Graham Watson

The stunning 210.5km race from Embrun to the top of L'Alpe d'Huez contained almost 15,000 feet of climbing over three hors categorie mountains. It started in Embrun, which also saw the start of stage 15, but this time headed north through Briancon (42km) and on to the infamous Galibier, Croix-de-Fer and L'Alpe d'Huez. The final climb is 13.3km long with 21 turns and an average 8.6 percent grade, with the 10th kilometer the steepest at 11.5 percent.

L'Alpe d'Huez has seen 24 stage finishes, the most recent two years ago when Frank Schleck - the man now in the yellow jersey — outlasted Damiano Cunego at the end of a long breakaway effort. Only two Tour champions have won on the Alpe — Fausto Coppi, in 1952, and Lance Armstrong in 2001 and 2004, although Greg LeMond almost won in 1986. He was already in the yellow jersey and, on an almost identical course to this year's, he launched a winning two-man break with teammate Bernard Hinault on the Croix-de-Fer, 55km from the finish. They crossed the line with their hands linked, but Hinault's wheel was just ahead of the American's.

The race

In the first 10km, three men took off: Ruben Perez (Euskaltel-Euskadi),
Remy Di Gregorio (Francaise des Jeux),
and Peter Velits(Milram).

They were joined a few kilometers later by Gerolsteiner's Stefan Schumacher and the four built up a lead of over seven minutes.

However, Team CSC took control of the race, sending classics man Stuart O'Grady to the front to up the pace before the day's first climb, the Col du Galibier, then sending double world time trial champ Fabian Cancellara forward to set a blistering pace leading into the penultimate climb, the Col de la Croix de Fer.

Bouygues Telecom's Jerome Pineau attacked the lead group and bridged to Velits, the last remaining breakaway rider, at the base of the Alpe, but all the yellow-jersey favorites approached the final climb together.

On the opening ramps of the famous ascent, CSC once again put the hammer down, sending Sastre off the front.

Sastre gives it the gas

"I told Frank (Schleck) I was going because I had the legs and he said okay," added Sastre. "To me, everyone looked tired after trying to follow our pace in the Croix de Fer. After that all I thought about was building my advantage. Both Andy and Frank sacrificed themselves for me, but that's what the whole philosophy of the team is about."

While Rabobank's Denis Menchov cracked almost immediately after Sastre's attack, Evans stayed with Frank Schleck and the other favorites — Andy Schleck, Vande Velde, Bernard Kohl (Gerolsteiner) and Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) among them. The group brought back Sastre, but he attacked again, this time opening up a substantial gap.

TdF '08 - 17: Evans was under pressure on the Alpe.

Photo: Graham Watson

As Sastre rode steadily, his teammates traded attacks with the other favorites. Frank and Andy Schleck each attacked, although Andy mostly appeared to riding support for his brother.
The other contenders were able to respond immediately. Vladimir Efimkin (Ag2r) and Vande Velde also threw down some attacks, but the Schleck brothers were able to respond and the elite group — minus only Menchov — entered the final switchbacks together, hanging about 90 seconds behind Sastre.

The favorites' cat-and-mouse play helped Sastre expand his lead and gave Menchov enough time to catch back on to the leaders with less than 6km to go.

Looking ahead

Menchov, who lost 35 seconds on the 25km downhill section leading to Jausiers on Tuesday, is now 2:39 behind Sastre and 1:05 behind Evans, and said he would now aim for a podium place. And he added that Evans, despite being a time-trial specialist, would not be guaranteed the final yellow jersey in Paris.

"It's a little bit hard for me, but everything is possible. I'm happy with myself and think I did a good job," said Menchov. "I'm still not too far away from the podium. One minute 34 for Evans? I think it's possible (he can win), he's a specialist. But Carlos will be good as well, I'm sure."

As for Evans, he was more or less upbeat.

TdF '08 - 17: Vande Velde had a good day.

Photo: Graham Watson

"It's not so bad, but I'd rather be five minutes in front," said Evans. "Tactically it was the best thing they (CSC) could have done, put Sastre away on the front — it would have been worse if he was away with Andy Schleck. But given they had the strength in numbers, it's always going to be three against one.

"A headwind worked to my advantage yesterday, but today obviously, they can sit on the wheel and recover. I could ride, but also I had to be able to cover attacks in the last kilometer. It's not easy to go and close a gap of two minutes with 10 of the best bike riders on your wheel ready to attack you for the finish. It's a difficult situation."

Frank Schleck, who saw his yellow jersey taken by a teammate, said it was alll for the good of the team.

TdF '08 - 17: Sastre in yellow

Photo: Graham Watson

"What we did today is just amazing. Hats off to all the guys," he said. "I don't know if the advantage (over Evans) will be enough for us, but this morning we knew we had to go out and really make them suffer.

"The end result is that Carlos has the yellow jersey, I'm in second place overall and (younger brother) Andy has the white jersey."

Added brother Andy: "No one could follow Carlos today, he was just too strong for everybody."

And the new race leader? Sastre admitted there will be some difficult days ahead, but said he simply wants to celebrate his second stage win on the race, following his maiden win in 2003, and his first yellow jersey.

"I'm going to be celebrating with my teammates," he said. "I have at least two days to enjoy being in yellow. Without their help I wouldn't be in this position. Tomorrow I think we'll spend regaining as much energy as possible.

"In the time trial, against riders like Evans and Menchov, I don't think I have much of a chance. Right now, I don't want to think about 1:34. All I want to do is recuperate ahead of Saturday." —Agence France Presse contributed to this story.