- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Just six weeks ago, Cadel Evans announced he would race the Giro so that he could honour his role as team leader at the Tour. In truth, it was much more than that.
His season was in tatters and required saving because at 36, a ruined season would effectively end his career.
That would be no way for arguably Australia’s greatest ever cyclist to say goodbye to the sport.
Six weeks later Evans is the only Aussie and one of a handful to finish on the podium in all three grand tours. He’s also won a World Championship and a Classic and mountain bike World Cup
Third place in a weather-lashed Giro is incredible and were it not for a gearing problem in the blizzard on the Tre Cine he would have finished second.
All on the back of a miserable opening couple of months of the season and a last minute decision to race in what could soon become the best Grand Tour.
Whatever happens in July, Cadel has achieved legend status in Australian cycling and deserves no less recognition, but why is it that the declaration still remains somewhat muted?
What more does Cadel have to do to receive the kind of adulation that people like Pat Rafter or Ian Thorpe, Grand Hackett, Cathy Freeman, Sally Pearson ..the list goes on…that these people get?
I continue to scratch my head about this.
I read Cadel’s book, I study his interviews and check out his blog.
I continue to scratch my head.
Cadel is a naturally shy guy and it’s clear he is, at best, wary of the media. I have little doubt that when he retires he will pretty much disappear from public life, he won’t be a coach or commentator or cycling journalist.
This shyness means he’s been reluctant to really open up about his inner most (cycling) feelings.
As a truly elite athlete, he has the ability to take us into a place that few can understand, but many would love to hear about.
When Cadel won the Tour de France, I thought the sheer enormity of his achievement will help prise open that triple-bolted door.
Of course, Cadel has no obligation to do this, but given that cycling is still an emerging sport to so many people, he is in a position where deeds alone cannot simply tell the whole story.
We need the insight. We need to Cadel to open up.
And here we are in 2013, and we’re still yet to see it and time is running out.
When Cadel rode so heroically on the Galibier in 2011 to effectively win the Tour de France, I couldn’t wait to read about it on his blog:
“One of the harder days of this Tour … thus far, by a long shot! A very strong effort by Andy Schleck and his Leopard crew; how they managed to take so much time in the valley from Briancon up to the Lauteret was a little mystifying. Four guys riding into a block headwind – who had already made an effort just get in the break and make time – is not usually a match for the combo of up to ten men behind with fresher legs. Work cohesion maybe? That would explain some of the teams Team Time Trial results. Compliments to Andy and Leopard for however they managed that.
“Behind in our group, with 15km to go, no one was willing to work. A bit strange for a French guy in yellow, this close to Paris … and even a chance for the White jersey as well. For me, without Voeckler’s help, it put me in a losing situation, with the wind though, escaping from the group was going to be very difficult but not very time effective, so, I just did one turn … for 9km … Basso did swap off for a few seconds, and I think that Europcar guy who could have had White today did one short turn as well, not how I would be looking to set myself for Paris, but we’ll see when we get there.”
On a sunny day in July 2011 when Cadel was standing on the top step of the podium on the Champs Elysses, a moment in history had arrived.
This was what we read in the Sydney Morning Herald.
“Really, I can’t quite believe it,” said Evans, “I rode the best time trial I could today. Every day, we rode the best we could. Every day, the team did 99.9 percent, if not 100 percent.
“I had a couple of off days, a couple moments of bad luck. But we just kept to our plan and every day we kept working.”
Sure it’s not the only interview he gave but it was one given fairly soon after his win.
This is what he had to say on his blog (sic).
“Shorter stage….longer day – that’s ok! Plan was, ride fast from (a) ‘depart’ to point (b) ‘arrive’…. Couldn’t get the stage win but, it was great for GC. Surreal even…. A huge thank you to everyone involved in this project, from team mates on the road, my teammates in the cars/trucks plane and bus around the race, the engineers at BMC, the management in the offices in Switzerland, Belgium, Australia, California. My coaches past and present, and all those who helped me to get here today; masseurs, physio’s/osteopaths, orthopaedic surgeons (!), all the Aussie flag bearers; kangaroos, koala’s, surflife savers, Collingwood supporters (*) and that nutty ‘Crikey Cadel’ crocodile (very original). I hope you enjoyed the ride thus far. I know I have! (*) I don’t have anything against supporters, you just stand out like dogs ….. In Europe. We can be proud of it, Julia told me herself! ”
Fast forward to a blizzard blasted stage 20 of the 2013 Giro and Cadel posted this on his blog:
“A ‘rest’ day yesterday meant fresher legs and harder racing today. And the weather was not exactly kind to us – if it were not for the snow, we would have been able to see the fantastic scenery that makes Tre Cime di Lavaredo… Not this Giro, snow and sub-zero temperatures filled the scene instead. For me, it was actually a good day after our unplanned rest day. Well, good until some very untimely and unnecessary bad luck struck by way of a technical problem in the closing kilometres. Not being able to race to my capacity was one thing, slipping from second to third on General Classification was more than just a little frustrating…. Oh well, that’s racing.”
No offence Cadel, but it’s pretty bland stuff, and he has so much more to tell us. We want to love everything about you but you have to open the door.
Contrast some of those quotes with these from Robbie McEwen in the Sydney Morning Herald when he won the 2002 Tour de France Green jersey.
“It’s an extraordinary day. I’m very happy,” McEwen said. “It’s a huge honour to be the man to break Erik Zabel’s record streak of wins and to be the first Australian winner of the green jersey.
“In 2000, I finished second but was a long way behind in the points. This time it was different. I finished in the top three in every stage in the first week and that convinced me I had a great chance.
“My goal was to win a stage and anything else was going to be a bonus, so two stage wins and the green jersey is pretty special.
“This win is for all of my Lotto team. The masseurs, the mechanics, the team directors and all the riders. It’s magnifique. I’ve won two stages and the green jersey. It’s superb.”
When Stuart O’Grady won Paris-Roubaix in 2007 it was one of the most emotional sporting wins I’ve ever seen. And Stuey’s comments on Velonews reflected that.
“It’s a dream come true. I only want to win big races now. I sacrificed the green jersey. I sacrificed sprinting for stages. I prefer to win one classic than 10 small races. I didn’t think it was going to happen this week, to be honest.”
“I punctured halfway through the Arenberg and I rode about 1km with a flat tire. I came out of the Arenberg about one minute behind the lead group and I thought it was pretty much over then,” said O’Grady, who patiently worked his way back to the front group of favorites.
“I looked around and everyone was looking pretty hammered. We came out of one section and it was all twos and threes. I was still feeling not as bad as everyone looked.”
It’s simple really. Cadel, Robbie and Stuey are all legends of Australian cycling, and in order of achievement Cadel is out on his own.
But when it comes to insight, Cadel is running a distant third.
Trouble is, today it’s the media who drive the big end of sport by paying the massive rights contract that facilitate those huge wages. In return we can enjoy countless pages of coverage and consume hours of air time as the events unfold.
But it’s only fair that those pages and hours of airtime contain not just actions we’ll never forget but also words.
So Cadel as we approach what should be an amazing Tour and who knows may be even your last one, open the door to what you’re really feeling a lot wider than you have done in the past.
Then you might find out how many fans you really have and become a legend in every sense of the word.
Fancy a wager on your favourite sport? Head on over to PlayUp for great odds and friendly customer service and pick a winner. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.