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The Roar

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Cadel Evans, from great rider to great Australian

Expert
24th July, 2011
4

Cadel Evans started the penultimate stage of the Tour de France as the greatest cyclist Australia had ever produced, and finished it as our greatest individual athlete.

Not since Rod Laver claimed the Grand Slam in tennis has an individual Australian ruled the world in a truly global sport.

The history books will speak of Bradman, Laver and Evans.

There is no tougher sporting event than the Tour de France: it has the endurance of a marathon, the danger of Formula One, chess-like tactics and it is played out over three gruelling weeks in the European summer.

To win, everything has to go right. The preparation, the fitness, the team, the tactics and a bit of luck have to go your way.

In the past Cadel has inferred that the luck and the team were the missing pieces in his puzzle.

Some believed those excuses had got a little old and the truth was that Cadel could not go with the European grand tour specialists when the heat was on in the mountains.

This year there was something different about the Australian. The angry little man of the past had turned into a relaxed and confident rider and interviewee.

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Perhaps it was the confidence that comes from wearing the rainbow hoops of the world champion which he earned with an epic effort in Mendrisio in 2009.

In that race he attacked at the perfect moment, dispelling the criticism that he was too reactive tactically.

At a critical point in the coverage last night, SBS came back from a break to the musical interlude of “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”. No phrase could better sum up Cadel’s performance in the 2011 Tour.

While he claimed glory in Saturday’s time trial, the hard work was done in the previous 18th and 19th stages in the Alps.

In the 18th stage – Col du Galibier – Andy Schleck mounted an audacious attack some 60 kilometres from the finish line. It looked like a decisive break which Cadel had not covered.

He would need to eat into the lead if he wanted to keep his Tour alive.

He looked around to the other GC riders in the peloton for assistance on the final incline. His pleas fell on deaf ears and heavy legs. If he was going to do it he would be flying solo.

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In one of the bravest rides ever seen in the Tour, Cadel dug deep to cut into the advantage Schleck had created in the attack.

Equally brave was Contador’s move in the final mountain stage, the iconic L’Alpe d’Huez.

On the initial ascent Evans could not respond to the Spaniard’s vicious spurts, looking as if his legs had finally given in.

To add insult, he had some issues with his bike. Again, he was dropped from a pack containing the Schlecks and Contador. There was a period of about fifteen minutes when his Tour appeared to be over.

The old Cadel may have been readying the excuses. The new champion, with some assistance from his team, rejoined the lead group and rode the L’Alpe d’Huez with his main rival Andy Schleck on his wheel.

This resulted in 57 being the magic number in the all-important individual time trial stage.

That was the number of seconds Cadel Evans needed to make up on Andy Schleck to write his name into history.

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To add to the drama, each man had been runner-up twice before in the Tour. For one man it would be three near misses – a mental hurdle that may have been too much to overcome for the older Evans in subsequent Tours.

It was a tantalising gap. As the superior time trial rider, Evans was likely to make up some ground on Schleck – but nearly a minute is a lot to make up in 42.5 kms.

Cadel produced the time trial of his life, only missing out on the stage win by a matter of seconds. It was more than enough in the main game – the race to wear the maillot jaune into Paris, at the zenith of world cycling.

As Cadel stood on the podium the pain of the past three weeks and the last ten years welled up. The emotion was clear in his glistening blue eyes.

The hundreds of thousands of kilometers, the gut-wrenching climbs, the past disappointments and the perennial grimace have left an indelible mark on Evans’ face, in the form of deep frown lines.

He is a serious athlete in every sense of the word – a different kind of man to the usual ego-fuelled sporting star. In his post-race comments he spoke of his late mentor Aldo Sassi being the man who never lost faith in him. He spoke generously of his team and with trademark humility.

In a Sixty Minutes profile done a couple of years ago, his wife described him as a simple man who enjoys his solitude.

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The paradox of cycling is that despite being a team sport, for the lead riders there comes a point in the race when they are alone on a mountain. It is the ultimate test of self, of mind and body.

It turns out that Cadel never lost faith in himself either.

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