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Lance Armstrong has warned Cadel Evans that only a killer’s instinct, and a little patience, will give him any chance of winning this year’s Tour de France.
After nine stages, talk around the team buses suggests that the Silence team leader’s three-minute deficit – due mainly to a disastrous team time trial performance on stage four – has already ruled him out of contention.
And a futile attack on the Envalira climb early on Saturday’s eighth stage, which Evans believed was a chance to claw back time, has done little to instil fear into rivals like Armstrong, or his Astana teammate Alberto Contador.
Evans, the runner-up the past two years, still remains hopeful that a difficult third week of racing in the hilly Vosges and the high Alps will put him back in contention.
“The first third of the Tour de France has gone well, physically. Mentally, it’s a different story,” said Evans.
“I’m three minutes down on classification. But in the Alps I’ll have more opportunities to try things.”
Seven-times champion Armstrong, who sat third overall at 08 secs off the pace of Italy’s unlikely race leader Rinaldo Nocentini, and only two seconds off Contador, called Evans’ attempt to move up the standings on Saturday “gutsy”.
But he added that the Australian, and fellow rivals like Carlos Sastre and Andy Schleck, would have to choose the right moment, and be more convincing, if they were to have a stab at destabilising the dominant Astana team.
“If I was those guys, I would wait,” Armstrong said after Sunday’s ninth stage over the Col d’Aspin and Col de Tourmalet, won by Frenchman Pierrick Fedrigo from a two-up sprint in Tarbes.
“I think this race is going to get a lot harder and our team won’t look the same in the third week as it does now.
“It’s still too close and honestly, if I was Cadel Evans or Andy Schleck or Carlos Sastre, I would be waiting.
“I would wait for my moment in the Alps, on Mont Ventoux or whatever. And I would stick it in as hard as I could, I would pull the knife out and go as hard as I could.”
While battling rivals from other teams, Armstrong will also be on the lookout for moves from Contador. The pair have been battling for Astana’s leadership and Armstrong admitted Sunday, for the first time, that tension exists.
As for Evans, Armstrong said the Australian’s attempt to distance the peloton, over 150km from the finish, on Saturday was borne more out of frustration than real hope.
“It was a gutsy move, but I think Cadel is sensitive to the perception that he never attacks,” Armstrong told AFP.
“Sometimes when people are sensitive to that they try to compensate, it might not have been a move that we would have made but you’ve got to give him credit for trying.”
With four Astana riders currently in the top six of the race’s general classification, the Kazakh-backed team has numerous tactical cards at their disposal.
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