Cadel Evans spins his wheels of fortune

03Jul08

AS the world’s best cyclists shape up for the Tour de France, Cadel Evans explains why he’ll be taking on the cheats as much as the mountains.

THE Tour de France is stamped as an event that plumbs the depths of human endurance and spirit.

It’s been described as a physical challenge like something out of Greek mythology, where competitors dispatch rivals along the way with an iron-willed brutality.

Nowhere will this be more apparent than in the 2008 Tour, where riders must tackle gut-wrenching ascents, including the highest pass in France — the 2880m Bonette-Restefonds — and the legendary 21-hairpin climb to alpine ski resort L’Alpe d’Huez.

Since its birth in 1903, the Tour has not simply set the standard for bike races, but has come to represent one of the great spectacles of international TV sports coverage.

Year after year, cameras have captured how the Tour has proved a highly dangerous pursuit not only for cyclists, but also media and officials.

Though four competitors have died in accidents — including Italian Fabio Casartelli, who in 1995 crashed at nearly 90km/h during a descent and hit his head on a concrete block — a motorcycle rider and his journalist-passenger died after slipping on gravel and flying off a barrier-free mountain road near Ax-les-Thermes in 1957. A year later, an official was killed after being cleaned up by sprinter Andre Darrigade.

In 2007, a new wave of Australians discovered all that’s exciting, and frightening, about the sport.
A record number of viewers — 1.2 million — watched SBS’s live broadcast of stage 19, where Australian cycling hero Cadel Evans, 31, battled for the leader’s yellow jersey.

In its 18th year of covering the Tour, SBS, eager to capitalise on Evans being race favourite and hopefully the first Aussie to win the event, is delivering almost 84 hours of live coverage.

Though millions worship those who ride the Tour, the inescapable fact is that the reputation of the event has been besmirched by illicit drug use.

Evans, who after more than 3000km was only 23 seconds away from winning last year’s Tour, has the squeakiest of clean images in the sport.

He is adamant cycling officials are proving relentless in the pursuit of drug users. There is a perception of more doping in cycling than other elite sports, Evans suspects, partly because officials in other sports are not so desperate to expose cheats.

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I’m sure I’ve been beaten by cheats before — I know I have — and I’m sure I’ll be beaten by cheats in the future, so I just go and do the best Tour I can and people who believe in me and people who know me respect me for that,” Evans has said.

At a training camp in the Swiss Alps, he adds: ‘‘

They (cycling officials) are being clean and honest with everything (testing) and I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

Phil Liggett, who will cover the Tour for SBS and is one of the world’s most respected sports commentators, is a former competitive cyclist who has witnessed drug abuse at first hand.

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Riders have brought this (anti-doping campaign by officials) on themselves,” Liggett says.

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I used to watch riders inject themselves and they used to say it was their own body and they could do what they like. But it’s (doping) a fraud and I agree with the chase of drug addicts. It will take time to shake this image that all riders are taking drugs. I don’t believe they do.”

Evans became 2008 Tour favourite after the announcement that the talent-packed Astana team was being controversially excluded over doping scandals.

The decision, announced by Tour director Christian Prudhomme, ruled out last year’s champion, Spain’s Alberto Contador, and third place-getter Levi Leipheimer.

Evans finished second to Contador last July, the best Australian result in Tour history and also the three-week classic’s second-closest result.

Evans, who spent the Australian summer at his Barwon Heads home and trained along the Great Ocean Road, is reluctant to share whatever insecurities he might be feeling in the lead-up to the Tour. His low-key approach stems from his aversion to self-promotion and hype. He’s done all he can in training and simply wants the race to start so he can have another crack at what ranks as the America’s Cup of cycling.

Famous for his idiosyncratic, fastidious approach to training, racing and diet, he gives the impression he’s guided by nobody’s expectations but his own, and feels no pressure from his race-favourite status.

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There’s no problems there. I feel like everyone in Australia is on my side and I like it,” Evans says.

Though the Tour winner’s yellow jersey can ultimately be worn by only one man, Evans, who last year raked in $2 million, knows the importance of team support in a race campaign.

He has full confidence in his Silence-Lotto teammates and has recruited a respected Belgian chef to look after his dietary requirements. Added to the team this year is a bodyguard who’ll ensure Evans is protected from the mobs of fans and media at the end of each Tour stage.

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We have a cook on the team because, to be honest, French food in hotels is not that good and we need good nutrition,” Evans says.

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And we need security simply to be able to move around the course. It’s pretty crowded and if there are 10,000 people there you aren’t going to have time for everyone.”

Liggett, who will be joined in Tour commentary by the highly regarded Paul Sherwen and Michael Tomalaris, can’t envisage Evans being beaten.

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Cadel can win it and win it well,” Liggett says.

Evans spends his working life on two wheels. His hobby, however, is cars, and his favourite TV show is Top Gear.

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Cars are my passion outside of cycling; I like the classics,” he says.

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The biggest problem I have is getting used to shifting gears with my left hand. My Aussie cars have almost always been autos, so I often find myself hitting my hand on the door trim when I go to change gear.”

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