Sastre's GT's next year

disgruntledgoat wrote:

I'm going to be charitable to Evans on this one... He couldn't chase Sastre, not with Schleck and Mini Schleck still there, he couldn't risk pulling them across the gap and then having them nip off to put another minute into him. As soon as he realised that Sastre was taking enough time to take yellow and be in with a half decent chance of holding it, he was the one driving the chasing group (for about the last 5km).

Obviously the Schlecks weren't going to chase Sastre and everyone else was hanging on.

In his book Cadel basically admitted that he knew he wouldn't be able to go with Sastre from the base of the climb, and felt he could control the time gap to Sastre.

He admitted that he didn't think Carlos would get such a big gap; I'm guessing the alarm bells rang 1/2 way up climb - that's when he starting doing a lot more work on front.

That said, he still thought he could get the time back in the ITT; but he could never find his groove in the trial. At the end of stage he was drug tested and his urine was apparently very bloody, he reckons his body just gave up.

Of interest; Evans' doesn't blame a lack of team support for his missed chance. In fact, he felt that CSC deserved to win the race due to their strength in numbers.

As a side point, Evans is a big fan of Sastre. When he was doing his first TdF (2005), Sastre, who was working for Basso, told Evans that "if you ever need a bottle or whatever when you're alone, just let me know and I'll get you one. If I can help, you let me know".[/i]

flattythehurdler wrote:

Timoid. wrote:

That picture makes me think two things:

1. He's a stylish SOB
2. Why is everyone convinced he's so clean?



I think he's now too old too old to win the tour, but you cannot write off someone with his record.

I,m not really convinced, but I have to believe something or I'd pack it in.
PS Is Cadel's book worth a read?

Cadel's book? Not a bad read. It doesn't go into an in-depth analysis of all his races. He looks mainly at the last 3 x TdF and the World Championships of course. Surprisingly, it only spends about 3 paragraphs talking about his T-Mobile years.

It looks at his MTB background. But more to the point, it looks at his upbringing; and how that has impacted on his life. E.g. a week in a coma, living in an Aboriginal settlement with no kids of his age, his parents splitting up etc. Since Evans comes across in the media as a somewhat prickly character, the book helps us to appreciate his emotional makeup, and why he is like he is.

Cadel's pretty candid throughout it; he admits he's made so tactical errors. His associates, including the author, Rob Arnold, don't pretend he hasn't got a somewhat temperamental character. His wife also gives some good insight.

I'm wasn't a huge Cadel fan, but had a chance to go to a book signing (about 200 of us), where we had 75 minutes to ask any questions we like. I found him to be quite witty, intelligent and articulate (as well as still being quirky).

The only negative with the book - I think it was re-written to include the World Championship win and hence rushed. There are several grammatical errors in the book (which I hate (then again, check out my spelling in this post!)).

Is it worth the money? It's in hardcover. I thought it was - but I don't believe it will be to everyone's taste.