Huge congratulations to Cadel Evans

johnny2legs

A truly worthy and humble winner of this years' Tour de France

Stoo48

Indeed....... Cav was gracious too, well he was here on the US coverage. The Schleck brothers too deserve special mention.

geoff_ss

Apart from the preponderance of crashes in the first week it's been a great Tour this year with some very worthy contenders. I thought Evans rode a great race and his time trial was brilliant. I could hardly watch the closing stages on the Champs Elysee but Cav triumphed in the end and didn't hesitate to praise the whole team as usual.

Perhaps the only thing wrong was that the time allowance on the two big Alpine stages was obviously too harsh with so many unable to achieve it.

mouth

Great Tour overall. Been gripped by it TBH. Cav has ket me interested, but Voeckler? Man of the Tour except Evans.

Secteur

Yes - the fixed look of pain on his face as he climbed the Alps was awe-inspiring - a well deserved win!

rick_chasey

Is this big love for Cadel in part because he's English speaking?

jeepie

Don't think so. All the top five speak great English, though Bertie doesn't get it out much.

chiark

First tour I've watched in years... Utterly gripping. Voeckler was just inspirational to me up the mountains, and Hushovd did some great things. There's some great riders that have had the white jersey too - Pierre Rolland, Geraint Thomas, etc... Should be great for the next years!

But Evans seemed to be able to take the pain and push harder. The fact he's switched from MTB to road and won at both speaks volumes.

Not a fan of the Schlecks, but I can't quite say why: perhaps it was the whinging about descents... Perhaps it was trying to get cuddles to make the pace after wheel sucking him for 9km the day before... Quite why they were credited with 'animating' the mountain stages by the ITV4 commentary is beyond me - well, I suppose a 60km breakaway deserves some credit but not too much

Shame for Wiggins: I hope he'll be peaking at the right time for the next one!

What an event!

graeme_s-2

Rick Chasey wrote:

Is this big love for Cadel in part because he's English speaking?

I'd be temped to say there probably is an element of this, except Evans is so unwilling to speak to the media and so ineloquent and lacking in confidence when he does so that I'm sure I've seen more of all of the other contenders speaking in English than I have of Evans during this Tour.

I think there's a number of reasons I'm feeling the love for Cadel. Twice a runner up, both times looking like he got done over by other teams when he didn't have even a half decent team to support him. The aggressive way he's ridden since he won the Worlds. The way he really grabbed this Tour by the scruff of the neck when he could do, and fought like hell to limit his loses when that's all he could manage.

When I look back at this tour, I think I'll remember the image of Cadel towing the other contenders along in the Alps for 2 days running when nobody else would chase to keep him in with a shot at the yellow jersey wearing a permanent grimace. Class

Cressers

Evans only did what he needed to do to win, he has no panache.

kieranb

yep, well done Cadel not bad for a 34 year old. Hopefully it'll be Andy's turn soon. Oh and as most would agree, a clean winner too!

inkyfingers

Cressers wrote:

Evans only did what he needed to do to win, he has no panache.

If I hear the P word one more time i'm going to scream. Evans won the race, he was stronger and smarter than anybody else. He did try to attack a few times, but he just doesn't have the acceleration to drop the pure climbers so he did what he needed to do.

Lets not get too rose tinted about the old days, it wasn't all 100KM solo breaks, they wheel sucked, marked each other and raced tactically just as much as they do now, the difference is that we don't remember the boring stages, just the exciting ones.

derbygrimpeur

inkyfingers wrote:

Cressers wrote:

Evans only did what he needed to do to win, he has no panache.

If I hear the P word one more time i'm going to scream. Evans won the race, he was stronger and smarter than anybody else. He did try to attack a few times, but he just doesn't have the acceleration to drop the pure climbers so he did what he needed to do.

Lets not get too rose tinted about the old days, it wasn't all 100KM solo breaks, they wheel sucked, marked each other and raced tactically just as much as they do now, the difference is that we don't remember the boring stages, just the exciting ones.

+1

Congrats Cadel. I've really warmed to his grumpiness, strange ramblings, and comedic voice. Love his race face and the effort he puts into his riding. Deserved winner.

Toby_W

I think Cadel would be more popular if he didn't speak English. I think a lot of people don't like the way he comes across but most people respect him despite this as do I. He has let his actions speak for him and I think he raced with tremendous courage.

Is Panache some sort of blood doping technique?

Cheers

Toby

chiark

Panaché is french for shandy... He has no shandy: not a bad thing in my books.

andyrac

I feel winning the Worlds in 2009 has made him. A thoroughly deserved triumph, and now a GT winner.

graeme_s-2

AndyRAC wrote:

I feel winning the Worlds in 2009 has made him. A thoroughly deserved triumph, and now a GT winner.

Given his general improvement after winning the Worlds in 2009, I'm slightly terrified about the improvement we might now see in him after winning the TdF!

inkyfingers

chiark wrote:

Panaché is french for shandy... He has no shandy: not a bad thing in my books.

I remember getting mildly merry on that stuff on a school trip to France aged 13. I seem to remember suggesting to my french teacher that we elope to a Gite in Provence for a dirty weekend. She turned me down, albeit gently!

Happy Days!

geoff_ss

kieranb wrote:

yep, well done Cadel not bad for a 34 year old. Hopefully it'll be Andy's turn soon. Oh and as most would agree, a clean winner too!

I find it rather depressing that Evan's is considered to be an old man! He's less than half my age so what does that make me? :P

btw I've not checked but Zoetemelk must have been quite old when he won after Hinault retired with tendonitis in 1980. IIRC he was 39 when he won the world championship

inkyfingers

I think Zoetemelk was just slightly younger than Evans when he won the tour (Evans is the oldest winner since WW2 according to ITV) although as you say he went on the win the worlds aged 39 and has into his 40s when he won Amstel Gold.

I'd forgotten that he was second in the tour 6 times!

tailwindhome

Cressers wrote:

Evans only did what he needed to do to win, he has no panache.

Why does his solo effort over 42 km on Saturday not earn the same respect as a solo breakaway?

graeme_s-2

TailWindHome wrote:

Cressers wrote:

Evans only did what he needed to do to win, he has no panache.

Why does his solo effort over 42 km on Saturday not earn the same respect as a solo breakaway?

He gets huge respect from me for not climbing off his bike and screaming "F YOU!" at the gang on his wheel. It must have been the loneliest ride in the world trying to close that gap by himself, especially having to do it two days running. I'm surprised he didn't plant one on the Schlecks when they asked him to help pull Contador back on the Alpe.

Graculus

I agree that the lack of panache makes a nice change - a cool head, sheer hard-work and determination do it for me.

He now has two new fans in our house, and I don't care how awkward or reserved he is with journalists. From the afternoon when we watched him hauling everyone else up the Galibier and making up the two minutes on Andy Schleck we wanted him to win yellow, and were delighted for him when he did.

Stone Glider

Here Here! What a fitting result for a True Champion(TM). Won the hard way by being at the sharp end the whole Tour.

I do not buy the bit about the Schleck's needing to improve their TTing, they both rode very good TT's, they need to improve their mountain climbing to have a greater lead over Mr Evans on the stages they have an advantage.

thiscocks

Great ride in the TT by Evans. It was amazing the difference between him and the schlecks(especially Frank) in cornering. Cadel looks like he knows how to handle a bike and F Schleck just looked plain embarracing round most of the corners. Approaching left handers on the left side of the road and looking like he was about to fall off at every apex (although dont think he knows what one is).

Glad someone beat them to be honest as the only thing they can do is climb and that's it. Cadel is a great all-rounder and bike handler and as such is a much more worthy winner.

donrhummy

Evans was absolutely amazing this year. Numerous times his Tour was "over" and he single-handedly brought his GC hopes back from the dead. Just inspiring to watch!

Le Commentateur

The best time trial was the 9km one he did up the Galibier on Thursday – the sheer willpower to keep in touch of victory was compelling to watch.

BilgeRat

All too often panache=charged to the gills. Yet the same people whining about the absence of 'panache' are often those who bemoan the prevalence of doping. It's mystifying.

ms_tree

A well-deserved win imo. Not always been a fan but he rode like a champ from St 1 onwards.
BTW excellent blog by Robert Millar here:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/blogs/robert ... k-brothers

Le Commentateur

BilgeRat wrote:

All too often panache=charged to the gills. Yet the same people whining about the absence of 'panache' are often those who bemoan the prevalence of doping. It's mystifying.

They're not happy unless they can find something to whinge about.

Stone Glider

Thanks for the Robert Millar link, he is still a hero to me and an interesting commentator on the sport (Of Professional Cycle Racing TM P & P).

Have people mentioned often enough that Mr Evans has a Welsh grandfather and a Welsh name? Not much of a link but heck! We Welsh are desparate enough to grab at anything