After an amazing three weeks, Cadel Evans will stand in second place on the winners podium in Paris later today, just over a minute behind Carlos Sastre.
Cadel’s time trial performance wasn’t good enough to counter the amazing effort of Carlos Sastre who retained the Yellow Jersey after the 20th stage. Most experts had tipped Evans to pull back the minute and a half lead of Sastre to take yellow but Cadel’s time trial looked awkward while Sastre rode the time trail of his life.
Cadel did take some time back from the leader and managed to move from fourth place up to second overall but this wasn’t to be his year for a win.
This will be the second consecutive year that Evans has finsihed second in the world’s greatest sporting event. There is little doubt that he would have finished number one if he had a team as strong as Sastre’s CSC. CSC dominated the race on most days of the event, especially in the mountain stages.
Sastre was able to take valuable time on Evans because he had faultless team support. He proved himself a worthy winner by attacking and building a good lead on L’Alpe-d’Huez.
Another Australian, Stuart O’Grady, figured highly in the succes of Team CSS. He worked hard at the front of the peleton, forcing the pace and helping to make his team the dominant force that it was.
So the Tour de France for 2008 is almost over. All that remains is today’s final stage which is traditionally a day for the sprinters.
I’m dissapointed that Cadel won’t be standing in the number one position later today but still incredibly proud that he managed to place so highly without a great deal of team support in the mountains. He is a magnificent rider and I can only hope that he moves to a team that can take him one place higher in 2009 or that Silence Lotto makes more of an effort to build a winning team to back their star rider.
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Well summed up Rodney. I agree that he would have done better with a more supportive team, especially in the key mountain stages. Cadel just had to do too much work himself. Still a very great effort. When I used to do cycling I used to ride 3000km in a 10-12 weeks in training. These guys raced it in three – amazing!
You’re so right, Dave. It’s an amazing effort to even finish this great race and to be second overall is certainly nothing to be ashamed about. Cadel tode an amazing race and even got to wear yellow for several days.
I really do hope that he’s able to win a tour in the next year or two.