LAVAUR, France (AP)—Cadel Evans spent the first half of the Tour de France avoiding crashes and injuries, and the Australian thinks his “real Tour starts tomorrow in the mountains” as he prepares for three intense days in the Pyrenees.
The two-time Tour runner-up looks to be in his best shape in years. He is ahead of defending champion Alberto Contador and last year’s runner-up Andy Schleck heading into Thursday’s 12th stage, which has two huge climbs up Col du Tourmalet and Luz-Ardiden.
The 34-year-old Evans lost the 2007 Tour to Contador, and he was the race favorite the following year only to miss out again to another Spaniard, Carlos Sastre.
“The first mountain stage always gives a pretty good indicator of who’s a real contender for Paris,” said Evans, who rides for the BMC team.
Two big crashes have seriously impacted this year’s Tour, on stages five and nine, and several riders have been forced to retire with injuries—including British contender Bradley Wiggins and Kazakh star Alexandre Vinokourov.
Heavy rain and slippery roads have not helped matters, but Evans’ luck has so far held.
“I’ve been trying to stay dry and healthy as we always do,” he said after Wednesday’s 11th stage from Blaye-Les-Mines to Lavaur. “It’s been an usual Tour for us this year, but the real Tour starts tomorrow in the mountains. We’ll see.”
Evans leads Schleck by 11 seconds overall, and is 1 minute, 41 seconds ahead of Contador—an important lead since he can match Contador in time trials.
Stage 12 is a 211-kilometer (131.1-mile) trek from Cugnaux to Luz-Ardiden, and has three significant climbs.
First up is a category 1 climb up La Hourquette d’Ancizan, followed by the biggest ascent of the day—17.1 kilometers up Tourmalet at an average gradient of 7.3 percent. Exhausted riders then have an uphill finish to Luz-Ardiden.
Both Tourmalet and Luz-Ardiden are known as Hors Categorie climbs, or HC, so tough they do not have a classification.
“It’s 200 kilometers, pretty long, first (big) stage in the mountains,” Evans said. “Someone has a bad day, someone has an extraordinarily good day. But it always gives some degree of an indicator.”
Three-time champion Contador is reputed as the world’s best climber, but he has been complaining of a sore knee since crashing on stage five, and banging the same knee again in a fall on stage 9.
But Evans is not convinced the Spaniard is struggling that much.
“Alberto looks like he’s riding well to me. We’ll find out tomorrow (Thursday), I’m sure we’ll find out the truth there,” Evans said. “I’ll make my own race and see how the others go. The team is really working incredibly well, I’m super happy with the team.”
For Johan Bruyneel, who was team manager at Discovery Channel when Contador won his first Tour in 2007, Evans is now the Tour favorite.
“The guy who looks best is Cadel, he looks good and he’s been escaping (from) all the crashes. If you look at the situation he’s the favorite to win the Tour now,” Bruyneel told The Associated Press. “He had a good season already, he feels very good.”
Evans cracked in 2008 when he was favorite to beat Sastre, only to lose out in the decisive time trial. Coming into this year’s race, Contador and Schleck were tipped ahead of him, and Bruyneel thinks that has suited Evans.
“He doesn’t have the big pressure. In 2008 he was the big favorite when Sastre won it, I think he (Evans) made some mistakes,” Bruyneel said. “He hasn’t started as being the big favorite, but he’s in a position to win it.”
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