In the small hours of a cold July night way back in 2011, Australians sat huddled around their lounge room heaters watching events from a bike race on the other side of the world unfold in front of them.
A rider in a tight red and black jersey was hunched over his bike.
You could almost see the wake left in the air behind the point of his aero helmet as, with forearms resting across the top of his time trial bars, his legs pumped with unfailing strength toward cycling immortality.
Cadel Evans hadn’t won the race yet, but it wouldn’t be long.
In darkened lounge rooms across the country we watched as the time gap between Evans and incumbent leader Andy Schleck began to tumble.
We whooped with delight as the time gap reversed, indicating that our boy – our Cadel – was now leading the Tour de France.
Some of us even cried.
“The greatest Australian sporting victory since Australia II won the America’s Cup,” shouted the headlines after Evans rode into Paris a day later.
“The greatest Australian sporting victory ever!” screamed others.
Posters and double paged spreads appeared in newspapers. Highlights of the great race were being shown on mainstream television and headlining the news bulletins. Radio was awash with sound bites and tributes. Tens of thousands of people welcomed Evans home in a celebration of spirit that was televised live from Melbourne’s Federation Square.
Our Cadel. Our hero.
Fast forward a year and the same adoring media (and fans) began to turn. Evans had struggled with illness leading up to the 2012 Tour but still battled on. He finished seventh over all, a fair effort for a sick and ailing 35-year-old, but his success of the year before had clouded our judgement and nothing less than a repeat of his 2011 form would suffice.
Fast forward another year and throw in a loss of time on an early climb at the 2013 Tour and you now have the words ‘Cadel Evans’ and ‘failure’ appearing in the same sentence. Think about that for a moment. Cadel Evans, failure.
Really?
If Cadel Evans is a failure then I’ll take his kind of non-achievement any time!
Let’s look at this objectively.
Before last night’s Mont Ventoux stage, Evans was sitting 13th on general classification, 6:54 behind race leader Chris Froome. He is barely one minute outside the top ten and a whopping 25:32 ahead of BMC’s other great GC hope, Tejay van Garderen.
That’s not bad for a 36-year-old with little team support nearing the end of his career.
We tend to forget that Evans is now the same age as the oldest ever winner of the Tour – Firmin Lambot. Lambot won the Tour way back in 1922, which proves that Le Tour is not in the habit of giving itself to old men!
To use football parlance, Evans’ premiership window has closed. In all honesty, he was probably at the very end of that window when he won the Tour back in 2011. Even then, at 34, he was the oldest winner since the courageous Italian Gino Bartoli in 1948.
Of course, that shouldn’t stop him going into races thinking he is going to win. That’s what all good sportsmen and women do. They believe in themselves and often that self belief remains long after the athlete has passed his or her peak.
But just as a football team coming off a dominant era will still pull off the occasional stellar victory to remind us of how they used to be, so to do our ageing cyclists.
Evans’ performance at the Giro d’Italia was one such example.
But to accuse him of giving us false hope for the Tour by delivering such a performance in Italy is pure folly.
Evans has paid his dues. He has battled hard in an era of suspicion and remained a shining light for clean cycling. His consecutive second places at the Tour in 2007 and 2008 may have been wins under cleaner circumstances. Indeed his top ten placings in 2005 and 2006 may also have been higher given a cleaner peloton.
Injury, bad luck and a lack of team support cost him dearly throughout 2009 and 2010 before he broke through for his much-longed-for victory in 2011.
Evans was a late starter to road racing, coming across to the discipline from mountain biking. He was already 28 years of age when he raced his first Tour. Even so, he has had a long stint at the top of the sport and deserves respect.
After two weeks of racing in one of the world’s most unforgiving bike races, 13th place and a deficit of just 6:54 seems just about right for a 36-year-old with no team support. It definitely isn’t a failure.
Kathleen
Guest
Cadel on the first tour tor of Alberta in Canada! Not noted on his website but noted in Canadian press! Heres hoping the Roar repoorts on it!
Andrew
Guest
I totally agree with all you guys saying! As I had said earlier, to see Cadel on the podium ,Bmc team must find a group of good climbers to help him and not to worried about stages win! But team boss of Bmc said that they don' t want to be like Sky team as he said that they are boring to watch that true , hey, they did won the race.... Cadel can win the races for Bmc team , as you have known that how good he is ! I would like to see him again as a GC leader for next 2014 TDF!!!! I am not against TVJ as he still needs to learnt a lot from Cadel before he retire.
Wally Lindrum
Guest
BMC Team Management are the biggest reason that Cadel or BMC's other riders havn't done better. How many times can anyone remember seeing BMC riding as a group of 8 or 9 riders? in the last 2 or 3 years I don't recall any occasions where BMC tried to control the race from the front, but other teams are memorable for their attempts to control the race, especially if you go back too 1999 thru 2005 US Postal/Discovery Channel. under JOHAN BRUYNEEL who - for all his faults, really was an excellent Manager of his Man-power/Riders. Sadly BMC's Sporting Director JOHN LELANGUE just doesn't to have the same management (or tactical?) abilities - even though he has the advantage of 2 way radio communications (although 'Personally' I wish that Cycling (UCi) would ban the use of radio communication). If you don't believe me the listen to the TV documentary "One Sunday in Paris" and LELANGUE's explanation for NOT telling Cadel where he was positioned during the Time Trial at the end of which Cadel became the Yellow Jersey holder and eventual TdF 2011 winner. As Phil Liggett said in 2011, "Cadel has to do it all for himself ... all his team mates are way behind". Perhaps Cadel one TdF win will be his equivalent of Australia's single ever win over the US of A(& Dennis Connor) in 1983's America's Cup, but will always give every day and stage his best effort [i.m.h.o.a.]
Kathleen
Guest
Agreed that Orica-Greenedge do function as a team. Not a bad idea...I want to say Cadel look at Jens. See him go in stage 20 ! Cadel still has that hunger in him - just needs time to recover. Enjoyed watching him and Jens Voigt!
rastas
Guest
Maybe he can join Green Edge and help grow them into a CG outfit ???
Olivier
Guest
As an impartial,i.e. French!, spectator of the Tour de France since I put feet on pedals 35 years ago, I just can say that Monsieur. Cadel Evans was a rider that all vélo lovers could refer to and rout for. Seeing him win the Tour was a pretty satisfying thing to see, and I'm not a fan of Australian things in general. For a French and or bicycle fan, it's the best winner since flamboyant Fignon won back in...1984 or, to be fair, Lemond in 1989?...before the dark years of Spanish dopers, Italian dopers and ....American a-holes.
Simoc
Guest
I agree. One of Australias greatest ever sportsman. But this writer is the only one I have seen to raise failure and Evans together. Why write an article based on nonsense?
A.Maisey
Guest
Cadel Evans is definitely not a failure. But I do believe that the rest of the BMC team are most certainly failures. Evans has had virtually no support from his team during this Tour, but that failure is not as serious as the failure of team management in requiring a 35 year old rider to ride the Giro a month before the Tour. I do not know who the sports medicine consultants to BMC are, nor who was instrumental in forcing Evans to ride the Giro before the Tour, but any half educated monkey understands that you cannot take an aging endurance athlete and extract two Grand Tour efforts from him within a period of a couple of months. No matter how talented that athlete is. Cadel Evans is the most complete and most talented cyclist of his generation. The man is pure brilliance. Regrettably his quiet, self-contained, reserved personality is not the personality style that tends to extract the best cooperation from others. If his team members and team management had done their jobs Evans would be in the Tour Top Ten today. Cadel Evans is perhaps the greatest athlete Australia has ever produced. This is not failure.
Peter Crosbie
Guest
Sad to say but ... it's that ''Tall Poppy Syndrome'' raising its uglyness again, fortunately Cadel is above responding to the stuff. For my money Cadel is a real role model, no matter where he is in the peleton, & nil doping rumours - despite Mr 7 Tours recent comments about it being impossible to win the TdF without chemical assistance (LA seems sad and bitter). I can't help but wonder if Cadel happens to like Caravans?, 'cause there is a team of mainly Aussies and a team owner who has a few horses and a caravan factory, who could possibly use a GC Contender for 2014 and to top it off they all KNOW the meaning of TEAM and Mateship (unlike T vG and other BMC talent over the years who were 'supposed' to support Cadel).
kathy
Guest
Sean, Kate and others How can we make sure BMC management sees, hears that a lot of people want Cadel to continue and that he is a very good PR for the brand and for professional road cycling.should Cadel want to continue in some capacity I think we should all step forward in some way to ensure he has the opportunity in some fashion to do so after his contract is due to expire. I thought I would start by collating some of the blogs and comments ( especially Kate and Sean's editorials) and some from other sites ship it off to BMC racing team management.Call me naive but really we need to take action not just wish, hope to see Cadel continue in some form. Look at Jens Voigt of Germany, 41. Any ideas how to proceed - send me your suggestions.
Frank Stolp
Guest
Even if Cadel ended up way down in the general classification. He will always be a champion to me, and I am sure to many others. He has proved himself as one of the greats It is not always the winning that counts,but what counts is to partake and try ones best. And Cadel has always done this and is still doing so.
kathy
Guest
Nick...What about Jens Voigt of Germany, 41 he is riding well! Winning is not everything....I am certainly glad TVG was not team leader. I do not think he is a team player still young and needs experience. I am sure that is why Cadel was selected. In any case even if Cadel is unable to pull stuff off...as a psychologist I continue to be amazed how people do not recognise that famous sportspeople go through the same grief and loss issues anybody with a loss does toward the end of their career ( job loss, relationship breakdown etc). Denial is a normal part of the process. I am sure Cadel is not fully in denial....if you read some of his statements he is already considering his next steps. I personally hope to see Cadel continue like Jens. More power to them! They still have something to contribute even if it is not a win. He is certainly a role model for persistence and getting on with it.
Nick
Roar Guru
Thats not a bad thought....finish his career with a couple of cheeky mountain stage wins without the worry of being in the GC contest anymore?
Nick
Roar Guru
Cadel Evans is an inspirational and heroic sports figure in Australia, but like many many others before, and many many others...he has failed to recognise when to call time on the career. His decision to compete in both the Giro and the Tour this year was a mistake, a mistake driven by the fact that he did not want to be No.2 to tejay van garderen. His performances are strikingly similar to Ricky Ponting in cricket...loves his craft, but just fails to see that he isn't as powerful and mighty as he once was.
Colin N
Guest
Accordng to his Twitter, it looks like he took it easy, so perhaps he's looking to get in a breakaway in tomorrow's big stage?
Rob
Guest
Watched todays stage 17 time trial and a very disappointing finish by Cadel. I'm hoping against hope that he does something spectacular. Maybe like Baldric of "Black Adder " fame he has 'a cunning plan' !! Okay, so its a pretty pathetic stab at being humorous but, right now I'm really, really crying deep down!
Sean Lee
Expert
Good on you KC. Wish I could have been on the mountain with you. Sounds like you had a great day!
Sean Lee
Expert
Yes, we are lucky to have him Tina. He is a gentleman and an athlete and he has fans all over the world. It will be a sad day when he retires but the memories he leaves us with will be everlasting.
ben speed
Guest
I reckon the great rider would have won 2 or 3 tours against drug free opponents. It used to hurt me to watch him, white faced and exhausted at the top of a mountain when the cheats ahead of him would be dioing a dance on the finish line. Not only a great champ but a moral one as well.
Marie
Guest
Excellent article. Thanks for talking such good sense about Cadel. And you know what, thousands of us are still up until the wee small hours this week just so that we can cheer Cadel on, whether he makes top ten or not. He must be one of the most inspiring riders of the peloton! Go Cadel!