James from Disciple of the Way left a comment on my previous Tour de France post, Tour de France Jerseys.
Hey Rodney
Just curious on how well placed you feel Cadel is after last nights ripper of a stage? The commentators seemed to jump back and forth from Sastre having enough time to Cadel staying just close enough.
As I do only watch the Tour de France I don’t really know how good a time trialist Cadel is, having to trust the commentators saying ‘he’s good’.
Do you think he has done enough? It def looks like it will be pretty tight!
For those who missed yesterday’s stage which finished on the punishing L’Alpe-d’Huez, Spain’s Carlos Sastre attacked on the climb and finished over two minutes ahead of the other tour leaders. His amazing effort meant that he took the Yellow Jersey from the shoulders of CSC team mate, Frank Schleck.
Cadel Evans, who started the race as favourite, is now in fourth place, 1:34 behind the leader, Sastre.
So can Evans come back from such a big loss of time? I think so.
Cadel is well and truly still in it.
On the first time trial of this year’s race Sastre lost 1:16 to Cadel. That ride was over a distance of 29.5 km.
Saturday’s time trial is much tougher and longer with a distance of 53 km. I’ve heard that Cadel rode the second time trial course four times before the tour to make sure that he knows every turn and every piece of road.
In normal circumstances I reckon he’d be able to pull back the 1:35 he needs over that distance but when Sastre has the yellow jersey on his back he’s likely to ride the time trial of his life.
Cadel Evans has always said that he sees Denis Menchov as his main rival for the Yellow Jersey in Paris.
Menchov was 7 seconds behind Evans in the first time trial so he would be a danger if he wasn’t just already over a minute behind Cadel in the overall standings. Of course anything can happen and if Menchov rides a brilliant time trial he could be a danger.
It’s quite amazing to see a Tour de France still so wide open at this point of the event. If Cadel manages to take the race it’ll be a stunning recomendation of his abilities considering his team has been missing in action most of the time when it’s counted. They say that it takes a team to win the Tour de France, and his team has supported him as well as their abilities have allowed, but if Cadel wins it will be a remarkable solo effort.
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