Archive for September, 2009

More about Cadel Evans

September 30, 2009 at 2:34 pm · Filed under Cycling, The history of cycle racing

Evans A Travers 2001

I thought I had found a previous bunched race win for Cadel as I remembered A Travers Lausanne as a two stage event with only one a time trial. That was not the case however in 2001 when Evans won. That year there were two 6.85km time trials and the young Aussie pro won both.

take a look at the G.C. with Armstrong, straight from his third Tour win, ninety seconds down over just 13.5km. Nice ride Cadel.

A Travers Lausanne  31st July 2001

Final overall classification 

1 Cadel Evans (Aus) Saeco                               26.32,02
2 José Luis Rubiera Vigil (Spa) US Postal Service        0.06,95
3 Laurent Dufaux (Swi) Saeco                             0.35,72
4 Daniel Schnider (Swi) La Française des Jeux            0.44,70
5 Wladimir Belli (Ita) Fassa Bortolo                     0.55,51
6 Steve Zampieri (Swi) Post Swiss Team                   1.10,23
7 Daniel Atienza (Spa) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone  1.25,29
8 Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal Service                1.31,79
9 Alexandre Moos (Swi) Phonak Hearing Systems            1.47,12
10 Aurélien Clerc (Swi) Post Swiss Team                  1.53,05
11 Beat Zberg (Swi) Rabobank                             2.04,64
12 Martin Elmiger (Swi) Post Swiss Team                  2.09,21
13 Armin Meier (Swi) Saeco                               2.12,48
14 Niki Aebersold (Swi) Team Coast                       2.17,54
15 Lukas Zumsteg (Swi) Phonak Hearing Systems            2.30,27
16 Dominique Perras (Can) Cyclophile Lausannois          2.51,04
17 Ludovic Fahrni (Swi) Cyclophile Lausannois            3.11,17
18 Marcus Zberg (Swi) Rabobank                           3.12,71
19 David Chassot (Swi) Cyclophile Lausannois             3.22,49
20 Davide Bramati (Ita) Mapei-Quick Step                 3.25,52

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Cadel 3kph slower than Eddy

September 29, 2009 at 5:48 pm · Filed under Cycling, The history of cycle racing, The Worlds

So much for nearly forty years progress in bike design and training, Evans won the rainbow jersey at a speed of 37kph compared with Merckx’s average speed of 40kph. it can be argued that I am comparing apples with pears and it is true that the two courses had differences. In 1971 the race covered sixteen laps of 16.8km and on Sunday they did nineteen laps of 13.8km and signifigantly the three extra kilometres were flat. That said the two climbs each lap were the same and 3 kph is a hell of a difference. Don’t forget that on Sunday there were two hundred starters while in Merckx’s era, with no eastern europeans and few English speakers, there would be half that number.

It is always a hoot to see what Merckx got up to after a big win. After Mendrisio Eddy raced five times in the next seven days travelling the length and breadth of Europe. No resting on his laurels for Eddy.

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Cadel Evans is the man

September 27, 2009 at 10:37 pm · Filed under Cycling, The Worlds

evans_wife

Nice one Cadel

It is now official greenjersey policy: no more taking the piss out of Cadel Evans. But before it starts what about that crazy “victory salute”? It was sort of like the wave that the Queen gives to her subjects. What’s wrong with the time honoured both hands high in the air? Then there was the obsessive kissing of something on his neck chain, it looked like a ring.

But as I said forget all that stuff and concentrate on a good ride. Not amazing, after all you wouldn’t have known he was in the race until the last ten minutes but he was there when it counted. All credit to the Aussie Director Neil Stephens who put his team on the front when nobody else was interested.

At first it seemed like a typical Worlds with the usual lost cause break but when the Italians split the bunch, I think it was Scarponi who did the damage, taking a big group away it all became complicated. There was plenty of good men in the move including Boonen and Ballan but nobody that you would call a favourite and fortunately just when it seemed that the bunch was out of it the Aussies decided they couldn’t rely on Michael Rogers,their only rider up front, and started pulling the bunch along.

Honourable mention must be made of Gorazd Stangelj of Slovenia who was in the break all race and was still charging off the front on the penultimate lap.

Finally an amazing fact; The rainbow jersey was Evans’s first and only one day win as a pro!

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