A sporting success can be a rather good distraction, and the success of Cadel Evans in the Tour de France has been a lot of help for Australians.
In time, the managers of the Tour de France may well be relieved that a man of Evans’ humble stature won this prestigious and often controversial sporting event.
The Guardian was keen to note not merely the ecstasy of the moment, but the national sense of relief that had overcome a nation.
“Last weekend the Aussies were beaten at home in rugby by Western Samoa, a result that prompted much navel-gazing ahead of September’s World Cup.”
Enter, then, the Evans formula, a pill so potent it has sent a country of sporting junkies into a frenzy. The humiliation at the hands of Western Samoa was dispelled by “an unprecedented triumph: the first ever victory by an Australian in the Tour de France.”
Everything to emphasise the monumentality of the Evans achievement has been made. Nothing is spared to embroider what will no doubt become a myth.
And there is little doubt that some of it is deserved, even if fame is often misunderstood.
For one thing, Evans came from behind to snatch the maillot jaune in what must count as one of the most intriguing contests in recent memory.
He did, after all, come close in 2007 and 2008, finishing up as a runner-up on both occasions within a minute. He also beat ‘the curse of the rainbow jersey’ after winning the world championship.
When he was eight, he even survived a kick to the head by an overly excited horse. He is the sufferer incarnate on the cycling circuit.
It is not just the Australian public who need Evans to bolster their spirits on the sporting field. The Tour, it might be argued, also needs a victor like Evans.
Not only does he fit the bill of being one of the toughest cyclists around, his reputation is spotless.
His late coach Aldo Sassi did much to hammer an anti-doping philosophy into those he trained. Evans has become something of a poster boy for integrity on the circuit.
The Schleck brothers from Luxembourg looked at one point to be unassailable, but they were passed by the gritty Evans in the final time trial in a feat that has only been done four times in the history of the Tour.
“Evans grew wings,” trumpeted The Australian, “as he ripped his way through the streets of Grenoble.”
The reality is far more sobering than that. In Evans’ own words, it took twenty years of work.
It also took, and this was admitted with much grace, the work of his team, which did much to bolster him when he was flagging.
The ride into Paris was one that Evans, and his team, no doubt savoured. And Evans was no doubt casting his mind back to one of his greatest promoters who was not be there to see it, the late Sassi, who never wavered in his belief in the remarkable talents of this individual.
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