GAP, France – Cadel Evans on Wednesday said a lack of sleep due to pain from a fractured elbow led to his collapse on the ninth stage of the Tour de France when he lost the yellow jersey in spectacular fashion.

Former two-time runner-up Evans finally looked to have forged a privileged place among the main victory contenders when he battled through a tough first week to take the lead on the first day in the high mountains Sunday.

A day after shunning the media during Monday’s rest day in an apparent bid to fully rest, Evans’ dream was virtually over after he lost over eight minutes to new race leader Andy Schleck and Spain’s reigning champion Alberto Contador.

It was later revealed by Evans’ BMC team that they had kept the media at bay because Evans had suffered a fractured elbow in a crash at the start of Sunday’s stage.

Physically and mentally under par, Evans simply couldn’t follow a determined peloton containing all the favourites as hostilities were launched on the 25.5km climb to the summit of the Col de la Madeleine on Tuesday.

As a result, he started the 10th stage from Chambery to Gap in 18th overall at 7min 47sec behind Luxembourg’s Andy Schleck.

Although lamenting the sheer inconvenience of his injury, Evans said the real damage was done by his inability to sleep properly — one of the pillars of any Tour contender’s armory — prior to Tuesday’s toughest stage in the Alps.

“I didn’t come here to get dropped, especially when you’re in the yellow jersey. But that’s the way things go,” Evans told reporters prior to the 10th stage.

“Sometimes you do everything you can and on the day… I didn’t get any recovery since that (injury), I couldn’t sleep properly.

“It’s not real good being there, with the yellow jersey of the Tour de France, trying to go to sleep at night knowing you have a broken arm.

“Psychologically it’s not the easiest thing to confront either.”

Evans first showed signs of cracking around the halfway mark of the Madeleine, although it was 8km from the summit that he was left on his own.

By the time he crested the summit, Evans was more than seven minutes behind Contador and last year’s runner-up Schleck.

To his credit, Evans rode as hard as he could on the 32km descent to the finish line in the valley of Saint-Jean-De-Maurienne, where he collapsed in tears into the arms of Italian teammate Mauro Santambrogio.

Perhaps the only consolation for Evans is that many other podium hopefuls
– such as Bradley Wiggins, Ivan Basso and 2008 champion Carlos Sastre — are all over five minutes off the pace.

Four tough days in the Pyrenees start on Sunday, when the next chapter in the duel between Schleck and Contador is likely to begin.

Evans meanwhile was given some indirect support from seven-time champion Lance Armstrong, who suffered his own collapse on Saturday when he trailed in almost 12 minutes behind.

The American said the Madeleine is one of the toughest climbs there is — and that is assuming one is fully fit, and not carrying fractures.

“It’s a long climb, so once you get a little behind — there’s patches that go flat, false-flat, and you can recover a little bit — but at the end of the day it’s 25km and it’s very hard,” Armstrong said after Tuesday’s stage.

“When you get up towards the end, it’s steep and it’s hot, and you’re up at 2000 meters. It’s…. just hard.

“It’s certainly the hardest climb we’ve done this year. There’s no hiding from the Madeleine, on either side.”

Article:Justin Davis (AFP)
Photo: CorVos