Cadel Evans

Evans's legs seem to be in very good shape. In the past we have seen him
attempt to gain time with moves and then end up getting dropped and losing
time at the finish of some of the key stages. This time he was strong at
the finish and moved up into 4th, but he did it the hard way.

Though I wasn't sure what Evan's was trying to do sprinting after Contador,
not really his game to try and out sprint a climber. And as Contador is an
outside contender for the GC even if he got a minute or so over the top and
linked up with Popovych the pack would be forced to chase them down when
conditions favoured them on the way into Briacon, as happened.

The move left Evans in no-mans-land and realising that there were better
places to time trial he had to sit up and go back. After that he got
dropped from the leading chasers and had to work and had to struggle back
to catch up once they slowed before the final climb. Then Evans worked hard
up the final hill only to see Valverde ride past and take a time bonus to
move into second.

As time trialling and the steeper climbs of Pyrenees are Evans's strengths
the tactical battle was won by Valverde. Still Evans has shown he is in
great form and a good chance.

dewatf.

On Wed, 18 Jul 2007 02:13:53 GMT, dewatf wrote:

Evans's legs seem to be in very good shape. In the past we have seen him
attempt to gain time with moves and then end up getting dropped and losing
time at the finish of some of the key stages. This time he was strong at
the finish and moved up into 4th, but he did it the hard way.

Though I wasn't sure what Evan's was trying to do sprinting after Contador,
not really his game to try and out sprint a climber.

Huh? He wasn't trying to out-sprint Contador, but hook up with him and drop
his group. He wasn't strong enough on the steepest part of the climb, but
good on him for trying. Maybe you didn't notice, but Contador wanted his
help, and waited until it was clear that Evans was too tired before
taking off again.

Michael Warner Wrote:
On Wed, 18 Jul 2007 02:13:53 GMT, dewatf wrote:

Evans's legs seem to be in very good shape. In the past we have seen
him
attempt to gain time with moves and then end up getting dropped and
losing
time at the finish of some of the key stages. This time he was strong
at
the finish and moved up into 4th, but he did it the hard way.

Though I wasn't sure what Evan's was trying to do sprinting after
Contador,
not really his game to try and out sprint a climber.

Huh? He wasn't trying to out-sprint Contador, but hook up with him and
drop
his group. He wasn't strong enough on the steepest part of the climb,
but
good on him for trying. Maybe you didn't notice, but Contador wanted
his
help, and waited until it was clear that Evans was too tired before
taking off again.

I think Cadel's effort to bridge the gap to Contador was pretty
impressive but I think he did it too fast, red-lined it and never
recovered - hence his inability to work with him when Contador started
forcing the issue.


--
jazmo

On Wed, 18 Jul 2007 18:40:10 +1000, jazmo wrote:

Huh? He wasn't trying to out-sprint Contador, but hook up with him and
drop
his group. He wasn't strong enough on the steepest part of the climb,
but
good on him for trying. Maybe you didn't notice, but Contador wanted
his
help, and waited until it was clear that Evans was too tired before
taking off again.

I think Cadel's effort to bridge the gap to Contador was pretty
impressive but I think he did it too fast, red-lined it and never
recovered - hence his inability to work with him when Contador started
forcing the issue.

Yep. That's what it looked like.

At the end of the day Evans's effort, however impressive, expended a lot of
energy, went nowhere, got him dropped later and left him scrambling back.
Valverde's tactics were the winning ones.

I just think that Evans need to get such things right more than he has done
in the past to win. And after the excellent time trial last night Evans is
a chance. Though with Contador being able to time-trial well as well a
climb, Rassumen able to limit his losses to under 2 minutes, Vinokouov
winning despite being out when the course was wetter and what ever else
pops up it looks like being an excellent race. I am looking forward to
tonight.

dewatf.

On Sun, 22 Jul 2007 08:12:34 GMT, dewatf wrote:

Well that is what I was talking about.

Leipheimer gained 1'14'' and Sastre 1' on Evans; Evans wrecked himself and
lost more time to Rassmussen and Costador and finished with Kloden who was
dropped halfway up the climb.

dewatf.

dewatf wrote:
On Sun, 22 Jul 2007 08:12:34 GMT, dewatf wrote:

Well that is what I was talking about.

Leipheimer gained 1'14'' and Sastre 1' on Evans; Evans wrecked himself and
lost more time to Rassmussen and Costador and finished with Kloden who was
dropped halfway up the climb.

dewatf.

Tomorrow's another big day. We'll soon find out who's suffering.

Dorfus

Actually I don't think he is done at all, I think he knows where he is
going to win the race, if he is going to win it, I think he is just
trying to minimize the amount of times in loses on these tough stages
and not destroying himself for the Time Trial and race to Paris

But we will soon find out..... especially how much it took out of
chicken man doing all that work today in the final stages...


--
MikeyOz

Cadel's cough is sounds great at the end of every stage also .. tho
no-one else seems to have mentioned it ..

Ash


--
a5hi5m

a5hi5m wrote:
Cadel's cough is sounds great at the end of every stage also .. tho
no-one else seems to have mentioned it ..

Ash



We call it a Time Trialers cough, but you can get it from a hard ride.

Dorfus

MikeyOz Wrote:
Actually I don't think he is done at all, I think he knows where he is
going to win the race, if he is going to win it, I think he is just
trying to minimize the amount of times in loses on these tough stages
and not destroying himself for the Time Trial and race to Paris

But we will soon find out..... especially how much it took out of
chicken man doing all that work today in the final stages...

Cadel is done. If you watched the stage you would have seen he would
have followed if he could have. He was pedalling like a busted man.
Tonight is another tough one. Unless Chicken man has a bad day I can
see him put more time into Evans again tonight - and then it will be
too much to make up in the final time trial. Evan's quote was that
this was the first stage that didn't go according to plan.


--
mitosis