Publications
Partners
Montargis - Cadel Evans is keeping all thoughts of the Tour de France yellow jersey as far as possible from his mind.
But ahead of three potentially crucial days in the Alps, Australia's best contender for the world's biggest bike race must accept that he might just have to pull on the race's fabled tunic.
After his superb performance in stage three when a bumpy ride over seven gruelling cobblestone sectors left Lance Armstrong the biggest loser of the day, Evans is now only 39 seconds behind Swiss Olympic time trial champion Fabian Cancellara.
Evans has famously finished runner-up twice, in 2007 and 2008. In 2008 he took the yellow jersey after the 10th stage to Hautacam in the Pyrenees and wore it for four days before losing it to Frank Schleck, who handed it over to eventual winner, CSC team-mate Carlos Sastre.
The word from the peloton is that Saturday and Sunday's stages, which finish on the summits of Rousses and Morzine-Avoriaz respectively, will not host a real battle between the yellow jersey contenders.
After a tough week of racing that has left the peloton perhaps more tired than they'd reckoned, Evans admits he would love to emerge from those stages still in contention.
"Hopefully (I'd like to be) ahead of where I am on classification would be the optimal," the Australian said before the start of Thursday's fifth stage.
"But the stages we've had so far are not necessarily typical of the Tour, they're an indication of who's riding well but not who's (going to be) the best in the mountains.
"We'll see what happens in the mountains on Saturday, and particularly Sunday there'll be a real shuffle of the GC (general classification) contenders."
But asked about possibly picking up the yellow jersey on the way, he said: "We'll see. Long way to go yet."
Armstrong currently sits in 18th overall 2:30 behind Cancellara and 50sec behind Evans, a situation which, on paper, should force the American into trying to close his deficit.
"He'll certainly move up on GC, that's for sure. I'm interested to see how he and Alberto are climbing," added Evans, who is hoping Armstrong's team make some attacking moves.
"I wouldn't mind if they did. It's him that's got to make up time because I'm happy to stay where I am for a while."
Others have warned that Armstrong may try to destabilise Evans, Contador and last year's runner-up, Andy Schleck, by sending one or several of his capable teammates on the attack.
RadioShack have German Andreas Kloden, a former Tour runner-up, Yaroslav Popovych and young Slovenian climber Janez Brajkovic, who matched Contador on the climbs at last month's Dauphine Criterium stage race.
"Armstrong certainly will be wanting to make up some time, especially after stage three where he was expected to take time off Contador, but we can't forget who he has in his team," AG2R manager Vincent Lavenu said.
"Kloden is strong in the mountains, so is Popovych and Brajkovic won the Dauphine last month."
Evans knows from experience his rivals will be looking to chip away at their respective deficits, but also that the real hard work won't come until the Pyrenees.
"Even in these early days people will be looking for opportunities, and there's a couple of guys on the back foot -- I know how it is in that position, you've got to look for opportunities everywhere," he added.
"It depends on how aggressive we race the stage to Morzine (Sunday). If it's raced really hard from the start of the mountains it could make a real shake-up, (it will) start to shape a bit of the GC as it might be in Paris.
"But it's not like the four stages in the Pyrenees. Along with the time trial (on Stage 19), I think the race is going to be won there."
But ahead of three potentially crucial days in the Alps, Australia's best contender for the world's biggest bike race must accept that he might just have to pull on the race's fabled tunic.
After his superb performance in stage three when a bumpy ride over seven gruelling cobblestone sectors left Lance Armstrong the biggest loser of the day, Evans is now only 39 seconds behind Swiss Olympic time trial champion Fabian Cancellara.
Evans has famously finished runner-up twice, in 2007 and 2008. In 2008 he took the yellow jersey after the 10th stage to Hautacam in the Pyrenees and wore it for four days before losing it to Frank Schleck, who handed it over to eventual winner, CSC team-mate Carlos Sastre.
The word from the peloton is that Saturday and Sunday's stages, which finish on the summits of Rousses and Morzine-Avoriaz respectively, will not host a real battle between the yellow jersey contenders.
After a tough week of racing that has left the peloton perhaps more tired than they'd reckoned, Evans admits he would love to emerge from those stages still in contention.
"Hopefully (I'd like to be) ahead of where I am on classification would be the optimal," the Australian said before the start of Thursday's fifth stage.
"But the stages we've had so far are not necessarily typical of the Tour, they're an indication of who's riding well but not who's (going to be) the best in the mountains.
"We'll see what happens in the mountains on Saturday, and particularly Sunday there'll be a real shuffle of the GC (general classification) contenders."
But asked about possibly picking up the yellow jersey on the way, he said: "We'll see. Long way to go yet."
Armstrong currently sits in 18th overall 2:30 behind Cancellara and 50sec behind Evans, a situation which, on paper, should force the American into trying to close his deficit.
"He'll certainly move up on GC, that's for sure. I'm interested to see how he and Alberto are climbing," added Evans, who is hoping Armstrong's team make some attacking moves.
"I wouldn't mind if they did. It's him that's got to make up time because I'm happy to stay where I am for a while."
Others have warned that Armstrong may try to destabilise Evans, Contador and last year's runner-up, Andy Schleck, by sending one or several of his capable teammates on the attack.
RadioShack have German Andreas Kloden, a former Tour runner-up, Yaroslav Popovych and young Slovenian climber Janez Brajkovic, who matched Contador on the climbs at last month's Dauphine Criterium stage race.
"Armstrong certainly will be wanting to make up some time, especially after stage three where he was expected to take time off Contador, but we can't forget who he has in his team," AG2R manager Vincent Lavenu said.
"Kloden is strong in the mountains, so is Popovych and Brajkovic won the Dauphine last month."
Evans knows from experience his rivals will be looking to chip away at their respective deficits, but also that the real hard work won't come until the Pyrenees.
"Even in these early days people will be looking for opportunities, and there's a couple of guys on the back foot -- I know how it is in that position, you've got to look for opportunities everywhere," he added.
"It depends on how aggressive we race the stage to Morzine (Sunday). If it's raced really hard from the start of the mountains it could make a real shake-up, (it will) start to shape a bit of the GC as it might be in Paris.
"But it's not like the four stages in the Pyrenees. Along with the time trial (on Stage 19), I think the race is going to be won there."
