Evans Relieved As Tour de France Ends and Beijing Olympics Begin
by Justin Davis
PARIS, July 28, 2008 (AFP) - For Australia’s Cadel Evans, the Olympic
road race in Beijing is already too far on the horizon.
For the immediate future, the 31-year-old wants to concentrate on winding
down at the one-day criteriums which follow the end of the Tour de France -
and then put his bike to rest.
Evans’ overriding feeling was one of “relief” on Sunday after he finished
his fourth Tour campaign with an impressive fourth top ten finish.
Yet his second consecutive runner-up spot, a year on from losing the
yellow jersey by 23secs to Spaniard Alberto Contador, must have hurt.
“No, my overriding feeling is one of relief,” said Evans, who finished
1min 05sec behind Spaniard Carlos Sastre following Sunday’s 21st stage into
Paris.
After a year of meticulous preparation which has included up to seven
hours of daily training in the mountains, in all conditions, Evans’ yellow jersey
bid unraveled over two crucial days.
The CSC team of Sastre was boosted by the experience of Stuart O’Grady
and Jens Voigt, driven by the Swiss power of time trial king Fabian Cancellara
and was unbeatable in the mountains where the formidable climbing powers of the
Schleck brothers Andy and Frank, and Sastre, were unmatched.
In the end, Evans - on his own for most of the race’s crucial climbs -
was regularly fighting one against three.
“It’s not an easy task when you’re racing against a team that has three
guys who are attacking you,” Evans said Saturday after failing to overhaul
his deficit of 1min 34sec to Sastre during a 53km time trial.
Evans’ dream of winning the race took a major step forward when he pulled
on the yellow jersey in the Pyrenees.
The 10th stage to Hautacam, won by Italian Leonardo Piepoli, saw the
Aussie take the race lead by just a second ahead of Sastre’s CSC teammate Frank
Schleck, Luxembourg’s national champion.
Despite being in the theoretical position of having to work to defend his
lead, Evans’ team was in heaven.
“Everyone says we don’t have the team to win this Tour, but Cadel is
there,” team manager Marc Sergeant told AFP when Evans took the yellow
jersey.
“Our leader is good, and we’re going to help him as much as he can.”
That help, however, was conspicuous by its absence in the crucial
mountain stages, where CSC often had strength in numbers.
Schleck finally took the yellow jersey, relegating Evans to 08secs on the
climb to Prato Nevoso in Italy. With Sastre a further 41secs in his wake,
the Australian maintained that his biggest danger was Russian Denis Menchov.
Schleck kept the jersey until CSC team manager Bjarne Riis put Schleck
and Sastre in a bedroom and told them that either one of them would have to
decide who was going to fight for the jersey.
Sastre, with an impressive 16 Major Tours behind him and a better time
trialler, won the argument and on the final alpine stage to Alpe d’Huez the
Spaniard flew off the front at the bottom of the 13.8km climb.
He won with a 2:15 lead on Evans, giving the Australian an overall
deficit of 1:34 going into the penultimate stage time trial.
Evans, obviously worn down after his efforts to keep pace with the
incessant pace of CSC, finally relented.
“I’m not devastated, just very disappointed. I felt like I rode a good
time trial,” said the Australian on Saturday.
In the end, the words of Scott Sunderland - one of the CSC team’s
managers- were prophetic.
Two days before Sastre’s impressive time trial ride, the former Aussie
pro was adamant his team had done everything right.
“It’s not just (about) having the yellow jersey in Paris. It’s how you do
it, how you approach it, defend it and what you do in the race,” he added.
“To be honest they (Silence) didn’t deserve the yellow jersey. It wasn’t
that Cadel didn’t deserve it, but the team didn’t deserve it because they
couldn’t defend it.”
Photo by:CorVos Pro
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