BAGNÈRES-DE-BIGORRE, France — As the world waits for Cadel Evans to prove he’s the best cyclist on the planet, he was hustling into his team car Sunday after nearly losing his health, not to mention the biggest race of his life.
The favorite to win this Tour de France survived the worst crash of the Tour to hold on to second place overall. However, his status might be in question as the Tour heads deeper into the highest mountains of the Pyrenees. Australia’s sporting hero knows the race hangs in the balance.
And he’s not happy about it. As he entered the Silence-Lotto car, he handed his helmet to an Australian journalist and said, “Here’s your interview.”
The red and black helmet looked like the left side had been crushed by a sledgehammer. On the inside, a fracture stretched right across the center. Red tape held it together, but something more will be needed to hold together Evans.
After he crossed the finish line in the peloton, Evans, whose elbow was cut and already badly swollen, said, “Don’t anyone touch my left side!”
Riccardo Ricco of Italy and Saunier Duval-Scott (Spain) won the race, a 139.2-mile trek from Toulouse to this tiny town at the foot of the massive Pyrenees. With German Stefan Schumacher of Gerolsteiner finishing 40 seconds behind the peloton, Christian Vande Velde of Boulder’s Team Garmin-Chipotle moved up one spot to third overall. Vande Velde remains 44 seconds behind leader Kim Kirchen of Luxembourg and Team Columbia (U.S.).
It was the first big mountain stage of the Tour. Here in the Pyrenees is where the world expects Evans to grab this race by the throat, mountains and ravines and not let go until Paris. He’s still six seconds behind Kirchen, and if his body holds up, as does the pre-race dope sheet, it will send the world’s biggest island into delirium.
Australia loves its sports and has never had a Tour de France winner. Evans would be perfect — he’s as Aussie as a Vegemite sandwich. He spent his first four years in an Aboriginal commune because his parents wanted the adventure. He’s heading to Beijing for his fourth Olympics and has already spoken out in favor of Tibet’s independence movement.
“I don’t want to see a repeat of what happened to Aboriginal culture happen in another culture,” he told Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald.
And in the fine Aussie tradition, he’s tough and humble. When he was 8, a horse on his mother’s farm kicked him in the head, causing a depressed skull fracture. He spent six days in a coma and more than four years with splitting headaches, which taught him a little bit about suffering.
Evans, 31, didn’t have much growing up in rural Australia. Friends lived so far from his mother’s farm, if he didn’t get on his bike he’d never have a social life.
As it turns out, all that cycling transformed him into the most popular athlete in his country. He won a fan survey for just that a year ago and donated the $50,000 in prize money to two youth foundations, one run by former swimming superstar Ian Thorpe.
He and his wife, Italian pianist Chiara Passerini, split time between a seaside home outside Melbourne and a place in Stabio, Switzerland.
In the last year, as dopers fell from the top of the sport, the good-guy Evans has replaced them. Besides taking second in last year’s Tour, he finished fourth in the Vuelta a España, fifth in the world road championship and sixth in the Giro di Lombardia to finish as the world’s top-ranked cyclist.
What would it mean for Evans to become Australia’s first Tour de France winner?
“It would be huge,” said the Morning Herald’s Rupert Guinness, who is covering his 20th Tour. “Absolutely huge.”
It would be even bigger news if Evans doesn’t make it out of the Pyrenees. An early diagnosis Sunday night indicated that he should be OK after he hit the wheel of an Euskatel-Euskadi cyclist and landed on his head. He is expected to ride today.
“I heard it was pretty bad,” team manager Marc Sergeant said. “But apparently he said, ‘Don’t worry. It’s OK.’ ”
That’s not good news for Kirchen, who has felt Evans’ breath — and destiny — upon him for four days.
“I’ll have to feel better (today) to keep the yellow jersey,” he said. “I hope (Sunday) was my bad day.”
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
At a glance
Sunday’s ninth stage: A 139.2-mile trek through the Pyrenees from Toulouse to Bagnères-de-Bigorre that included two Category 1 climbs: the Peyresourde Pass and the Aspin Pass.
Next stage: Today’s 96.9- mile ride from Pau to Hautacam features famed Tour ascents up the Tourmalet and Hautacam, among the most difficult in the Pyrenees — so hard that they do not have a classification in cycling’s ranking system. The Associated Press
