Tour Down Under: Farewell to Cadel Evans, Cycling's Much-Needed Honest Man
The beginning of the 2015 road cycling season coincides with the sport's chance to bid farewell to one of its key players of recent times. Amid the heat of the Australian summer, Cadel Evans—one of the country's favourite sons—takes part in his final World Tour race this week; the Tour Down Under.
The 2009 World Champion and 2011 Tour de France winner's official retirement comes in February after his participation in the first edition of the race named in his honour: the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. Earlier this month the BMC Racing Team member finished 11th in his final Australian Road National Championships.
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The 37-year-old's contributions to the progression of Australian cycling will certainly form a considerable part of his legacy.
The longevity and success Evans and others of his generation (the likes of Baden Cooke and Robbie McEwen) have enjoyed in the predominantly Europe-based peloton has helped create an entry point for a team like Orica-GreenEDGE, and helped events like the TDU flourish.
It has also aided the advancement of others not associated with the country's new cycling power. Sky general classification rider Richie Porte and IAM Cycling's new Australian champion Heinrich Haussler among them.
On a broader scale, Evans has been the kind of human competitor—flawed, triumphant and more often than he would like, mediocre—cycling desperately needed at a time many of its former stars were being found out as synthetically enhanced.
In the January 2015 issue of Pro Cycling magazine, Herbie Sykes described Evans as "an extremely principled human being, almost Corinthian in his world view." The article details his relationship with the late Aldo Sassi, his boss at Mapei in 2002, and mentor thereafter. "Having been exposed to cycling's squalid doping 'culture', he found a kindred spirit in Sassi."
The veteran Sassi's base was the Mapei training centre in northern Italy. In an interview with Gregor Brown, via Cycling Weekly, he gave a fascinating insight into the tenets of his philosophy. As the Italian noted in the following quote, his system (which later attracted reformed doper and former Giro d'Italia winner Ivan Basso) was not perfect, but its core simplicity evidently appealed to the conscientious Evans:
"Every rider that comes here has to be committed to ride clean and be available for all the haemoglobin testing that we wish. If someone does not accept these, then we don’t work with him. Maybe this is not enough to be sure they are clean, but it is a good start.
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It undoubtedly was a good start for Evans. "If you are strong enough you can reach the results you want on your own using only your commitment and your muscles," Sassi said reflectively years later.
His protege proved it early on with a spell in the maglia rosa at the '02 Giro d'Italia. From there, increased comfort in stage races gave way to even stronger showings in grand tours. Fourth in the 2006 Tour de France became second a year later, a result he repeated in 2008.
The prominence of subsequently proven dopers Floyd Landis and Michael Rasmussen in the '06 and '07 editions, respectively, was proof of the difficulties which plagued the pursuit of honest competition on cycling's biggest stage.
Evans' obstacles to success in '08 originated from more acceptable perils of racing.
Backed by the brothers Schleck, Team CSC's Carlos Sastre ended the widely tipped Evans' five-stage mid-race run in yellow. The Spaniard's sole grand tour triumph was sealed with a memorable stage 17 assault on Alpe d'Huez.
Two minutes and 15 seconds behind Sastre that day, Evans deficit was just 58 seconds by the time they crossed the line on the Champs-Elysees. There was no shame in his inability to hold off a CSC team more equipped for the challenge than his Silence-Lotto outfit. Nonetheless, his frustration was palpable.
In a year when the absence of previous winner Alberto Contador had opened things up, Evans' own mindset suggested he was not quite ready to step forward to Tour glory.
His attitude to the requisite (but understandably infuriating in its abrasiveness) media questioning for a favourite was prickly at best. Evans' hostile response to the process—exacerbated by the struggles of the Tour (and who knows, maybe something else too)—became an almost daily feature of post-stage television coverage. An infamous incident saw him inform one reporter not to stand on his accompanying dog "or I cut your head off!"
It was not pretty, but it underlined Evans' status as a refreshingly more human, honest contender for the biggest prizes (in hindsight anyway). It also informed an important change of perspective.
As reported by CyclingNews' Susan Westemeyer in November 2009, Evans eventually saw the funny side of the aforementioned dog incident when he begun to sell "DON'T STAND ON MY DOG!" t-shirts. The stresses which accompanied his Tour de France near-miss a year earlier had begun to give way to a looser approach on and off the bike.
The biggest reward for the altered mindset (and the ample work and thought besides) was an emphatic World Championships win in Mendrisio, Switzerland. He broke free on the final lap, a good 5 km still remaining, and he successfully held off the charge of Joaquim Rodriguez and Fabian Cancellara, among others.
It heralded the great penultimate act of Evans' career, one which was a testament to the experience he had garnered, from Sassi, his teams and hours of racing.
Victory in La Fleche Wallonne and the Giro's points classification came in 2010. In 2011 came his long-chased-after Tour success.
Now with BMC, Evans set out his stall with a narrow stage four win ahead of Contador. The Spaniard's below-par form and a mid-race injury to emerging contender Bradley Wiggins left the Aussie and Luxembourg pair of Andy and Franck Schleck, now of Leopard Trek, as the main contenders.
The '11 Tour was perhaps the most thrilling of the (fingers-crossed) clean-era races. The general classification battle was lit up by Thomas Voeckler's command of the maillot jaune from stage nine to 18. Entertaining racing accompanied his and others' exploits on a daily basis.
Evans, meanwhile, bode his time. He tracked just about every move the Schlecks made in their preferred mountain terrain with a concentration which captivated with its calculated zeal. His earlier success provided a most useful cushion between him and his rivals
On the penultimate stage time trial, 57 seconds between first place Andy and Cadel in third, the latter's greater expertise against the clock blew away the Schlecks. So strong was Evans on the 42.5 km trip around Grenoble, only the specialist Tony Martin beat him.
It has been perhaps fitting that the story of Evans, cycling's honest and much-needed champion, has wound down with a natural, gradual decline of his competitiveness.
Bad luck and the emergence of others never allowed a Tour repeat. Successes in the Criterium International and last year's Giro del Trentino, along with competitive rides in the Giro d'Italia, have shown he is still a welcome participant in just about any event.
Evans' time is nearly over now. The Tour Down Under and eponymous Great Ocean Road Race will hopefully provide him the chance to sign off with a smile in front of home fans.
Regardless of what follows in the coming few weeks, Evans has already done more than enough for cycling. It was far from easy along the way, but for those reasons exactly, is hard to imagine Sassi would not be proud.
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