Evans: "Peloton's riding like amateurs"
Cadel Evans, feeling the weight of Le Tour. (Tim de Waele)
Cadel Evans tonight suggested that sloppy tactics by their rivals were smoothing Michael Rasmussen and Alberto Contador's path to Tour de France victory.
Speaking in Loudienveille after losing a further 56 seconds to Ramussen and Contador to add to the 1'52" he conceded at Plateau de Beille on Sunday, Evans said the peloton had ridden "like amateurs" behind a strong Rabobank team.
Clearly exhausted, the Aussie didn't elaborate, but soon stage winner Alexandre Vinokourov's Astana squad and even his own Lotto-Predictor team were in Evans's sights. "Astana gave up their chance of victory today. I don't think they rode well," said the Aussie, presumably referring to the decision to launch Vinokourov in a breakaway, rather than sacrifice the Kazakh for team leader Andreas Klöden.
Klöden was 17 th over the line in the same time as Evans. The German lies 5th on general classification, 5'34" behind Rasmussen.
On his own team's performance, Evans, now 3rd on GC four minutes adrift of the yellow jersey, commented: "I didn't try to go with Contador and Rasmussen because I was on my own. As they did yesterday, they cooperated together against me. When I have half of the peloton against me with their teammates, what am I supposed to do? I'm on my own. Astana has teammates, Caisse d'Epargne, CSC, they've all got teammates and they're not riding. They don't seem to want to win the Tour de France."
Evans had earlier remarked, "I was on my own with 12km to go. My team just doesn't have four riders to bring a break back."
The former mountain biker said that his chances of holding onto a podium place were "getting less and less as [Rasmussen and Contador] take more time.
"They way they are climbing, I have to be realistic: Rasmussen and Contador seem to be on a different level in the hills," he continued. "Maybe a flat time trial would normally give me a chance of gaining time... in theory I would be more suited to the flat time trial than they would be."
User Comments
There are 10 comments on this post
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sorab
Posted Fri 27 Jul, 1:11 pm BST Flag as inappropriate
What can I say? Flown the coup, been plucked, all the other ones as well. Just a shame really that what I've perceived as inspirational rides have been dodgy so far. Ah, the naiivety of youth. But hang on, what about that Contador bloke, he was putting The Chicken on the grill a few times as well......makes you ponder, non?
I stand by my whinging Aussie comments though! Bet he'll still moan if he wins yellow ("its too small, its rubbing my shoulders, I'm allergic to polyester, wife doesn't like me kissing podium girls") etc etc!
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The Dr
Posted Fri 27 Jul, 2:14 am BST Flag as inappropriate
Think the chicken has finally been plucked Sorab! No great loss.....He should nevr have been able to start to Tour in the first place. Yes he has passed all the doping controls in the tour, but why on-earth would he miss so many out of competition tests???? And you're have a whine about somone you say is a whiger? hmmm think about it. The man (Evans) is just speaking his mind, give the man a break. Respect to him for showing us ALL that the tour can be won clean!
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markrr
Posted Wed 25 Jul, 1:36 am BST Flag as inappropriate
Rasmussen had Boogerd in Evans' group, Contador had Leipheimer plus Hincapie up the road, Kloden had Kashechkin and Ivanov not to mention Vino up the road. If Evans had attacked out of that group prior to Contador and Rasmussen going they both had plenty of teammates to chase him down. Simple as that. Horner has done all he can, but he's not in that top group.
Fair enough Evans can't climb with Rasmussen and Contador, but then they can't TT with Evans, yet no-one is criticizing them for that. Instead Rasmussen rode a "brave" TT in losing almost 2 minutes. Does that make Evans "brave" for limiting his losses in the hills?
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esmit208
Posted Tue 24 Jul, 11:59 pm BST Flag as inappropriate
I like Cadel because he goes about his work in a blue collar sort of way. I don't like the disparaging remarks about his team mates though. Chris Horner has done epic domestique work and stayed with him long enough for him to launch his own attack, i.e. Rasmussen in the ALPS. Leave them in the vortex of your rear wheel Cadel if you really want it!
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SteveR_100Milers
Posted Tue 24 Jul, 9:18 pm BST Flag as inappropriate
Hmmm Vino out as anyone with half an understanding of bike racing would expect. Rasmussen cant even get the name right of the person whom he spoke to in the UCI...yeah he's a genius all right!
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