Evans lights up Tour, but not cigar
Overcoming a deficit of just under two minutes was always going to be a tough call for Cadel Evans.
But on the penultimate stage time trial of the Tour de France this morning (Australian time), the Australian ace came agonisingly close to scoring an upset that would have put a silver lining on an otherwise cloudy race.
In the end it was not to be.
Evans finished second at 51 seconds behind American Levi Leipheimer, and 23 seconds short of coming within sight of victory on a Tour de France which, some will claim, has been distorted by the mere inclusion - and subsequent exclusion - of Denmark's Michael Rasmussen.
Going into the 19th stage Spaniard Alberto Contador was wearing the yellow jersey, and with the wind blowing from west to east on what was a relatively flat 55.5-kilometre course, the time gaps were always going to be kept to a minimum.
Leipheimer started and finished the strongest, defying his mediocre form of the mountains stages to claim his first ever win on the race and thus cement an almost certain third place finish ahead of tomorrow morning's (Australian time) final stage to Paris.
Contador finished down in fifth place, but with a lead on Evans that should stay intact.
The Spaniard, however, came close to a famous defeat.
He was given a fright in the second third of the course, where the flawless riding of Evans had slashed his 1:50 deficit to just 38 seconds.
The flatter, final third of the course was to the 24-year-old Spanish climber's favour, and he dug deep to limit the damage.
Evans was left in second place, on the stage and the overall, but said he had been given some brief hope by his team manager Hendrik Redant.
"Hendrik told me over the radio I was 38 seconds from the yellow (jersey) with 15 or 20km to go, and I thought, 'I'm still in with a chance here', so I just kept on giving it everything," said Evans.
"It was close, but 'no cigar', as Robbie (McEwen) says."
McEwen's 'cigar' reference followed one of his close calls on a sprinters' stage, before the Australian had to leave his Predictor-Lotto team-mate behind in the Alps when he finished outside the stage's time limit.
Evans said there was no point in looking back at the tactics, or the inclusions of some riders that could have changed his result.
His fans would disagree. He was most often put to the test when Rasmussen, who was ejected from the race by Rabobank in a doping row, often set the pace in the mountains stages.
However Evans, who admitted to being surprised by Leipheimer's penultimate day performance, refused to look back.
"There were a lot of things on a lot of days that would have changed the tactics, and so many different directions the race could have taken," said Evans.
"But it's just not possible to quantify."
-AFP