More reasons to dislike Evans



thebluetrain

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Jul 31, 2004
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Is this guy serious? More whining from Cadel.

"To be honest, I think it was not a time loss," he said in the finish. He started chasing Sastre and leading out the group by himself when the Spaniard's gap grew over two minutes. "There was no support, they all sat on. It was a headwind and the headwind probably worked in my advantage yesterday, but today they could obviously sit on the wheel and recover."
 
thebluetrain said:
Is this guy serious? More whining from Cadel.

"To be honest, I think it was not a time loss," he said in the finish. He started chasing Sastre and leading out the group by himself when the Spaniard's gap grew over two minutes. "There was no support, they all sat on. It was a headwind and the headwind probably worked in my advantage yesterday, but today they could obviously sit on the wheel and recover."
Hey Cadel, what about you not doing any work until the others decided to sit on? Sucks to have others do to you what you normally do, right? ;)
 
thebluetrain said:
Is this guy serious? More whining from Cadel.

"To be honest, I think it was not a time loss," he said in the finish. He started chasing Sastre and leading out the group by himself when the Spaniard's gap grew over two minutes. "There was no support, they all sat on. It was a headwind and the headwind probably worked in my advantage yesterday, but today they could obviously sit on the wheel and recover."
so what im about to write is as childish as cadel, but...
i seriously want him to crash out, a la ulle, during the final TT :p

stirke what i just said. evans doesnt deserve even that. and its highly insulting to jan. so, lets hope he pulls a chicken!
 
Funny thing is... I don't see any whining in his statement. He just seemed to be saying it as it was... He even said that they could sit on his wheel today because of the situation. He probably would have been happier if someone chased out of the non-CSC guys. And if the roles had been reversed... he would have sat on someone else's wheel like they did.

Am I missing something? I didn't hear it with the whiny voice of course... so that could be affecting my judgment....
tongue.gif
 
Crankyfeet said:
Am I missing something? I didn't hear it with the whiny voice of course... so that could be affecting my judgment....
tongue.gif
I think that we all read it in his whiny voice, hince the interpretation..

Its ok that you are a super duper Cadel fan Cranky. We still like everything else about you:D
 
I think people are using the retrospectograph a bit here.

Evans' comments are not exactly diplomatic (or accurate, I think), but his point is closer to being valid when you consider who his competition was at the start of the Alpe.

Evans' rivals were probably Menchov, Kohl/Sastre, Schleck and Vande Velde, in that order. His *****ing about doing the work is a dig at Menchov. He hardly wants to be Menchov's domestique and Menchov wasn't out of the game--he still isn't. So he doesn't want to bury himself and then see Menchov take 30 seconds up the road in the last kilometre, especially when Menchov's chances were fading more than Evans' were.

Evans did face some wind for once--well, for twice, really, since he did the bulk of the chasing in Stage 10. He would have liked some help from the likes of Menchov and VdV, I imagine.

However, I think his comments are still wide of the mark. Menchov was weak--he had already cracked at the start after following Sastre. Evans did a lot of following wheels at the start as well--Kohl in particular chased down some beaks (very charitably); so did VdV. And then there was the unexpected sight of 2-3 AG2Rs in the final pack, with Stéphane Goubert doing good things. Evans only really hit the front with a bit more than 3 km to go, and then held the same gap to Sastre to the finish.

I thought at the time that AG2R might be doing that with some... encouragement from another team, but on reflection I'm less sure. They now have two blokes ensconced in the top 10, which is a handy result. There was good reason to do what they did. And, if Lotto were paying them, they should have paid them to go just a little quicker!
 
Drongo said:
I think people are using the retrospectograph a bit here.

Evans' comments are not exactly diplomatic (or accurate, I think), but his point is closer to being valid when you consider who his competition was at the start of the Alpe.

Evans' rivals were probably Menchov, Kohl/Sastre, Schleck and Vande Velde, in that order. His *****ing about doing the work is a dig at Menchov. He hardly wants to be Menchov's domestique and Menchov wasn't out of the game--he still isn't. So he doesn't want to bury himself and then see Menchov take 30 seconds up the road in the last kilometre, especially when Menchov's chances were fading more than Evans' were.

Evans did face some wind for once--well, for twice, really, since he did the bulk of the chasing in Stage 10. He would have liked some help from the likes of Menchov and VdV, I imagine.

However, I think his comments are still wide of the mark. Menchov was weak--he had already cracked at the start after following Sastre. Evans did a lot of following wheels at the start as well--Kohl in particular chased down some beaks (very charitably); so did VdV. And then there was the unexpected sight of 2-3 AG2Rs in the final pack, with Stéphane Goubert doing good things. Evans only really hit the front with a bit more than 3 km to go, and then held the same gap to Sastre to the finish.

I thought at the time that AG2R might be doing that with some... encouragement from another team, but on reflection I'm less sure. They now have two blokes ensconced in the top 10, which is a handy result. There was good reason to do what they did. And, if Lotto were paying them, they should have paid them to go just a little quicker!

Good analysis. I don't think Ag2r were in the employ of Evans, because Efimkin attacked, rather than made pace.

I think Evans' beef is that instead of mixing it up to chase Sastre (to everyone's mutual benefit) they attacked, poorly, to no-one's. Sherwen and Liggett went on about how it was up to Evans to set the tempo - well, to a degree - but the fact was that it was the other contenders who had more to lose today than Evans - Menchov, VdV and Kohl in particular. All were realistic shots at either yellow or podium. Now only Menchov of that group is still likely to trouble the top step in Paris, and Evans and Sastre are in stronger positions relative to him.

Evans' challengers were in a bind - set a high tempo and you reduce the gap to Sastre, but help Evans close the gap; attack and then slow, and you lose time to Sastre but might gap Evans and Menchov, who are the stronger ITTers. If VdV could have ridden harder, then tactically I think he should have worked on the front for longer, instead of attacking. He had the most to lose today by Sastre being up the road.

As for Evans, he was also in a bind - as had been pointed out, by setting tempo, he does work for others that suck his wheel and gain time on him at the end. But by not working at the front from the base, you lose time to Sastre. I think he set the tempo with 3.5km to go. He simply worked out how much he had left in the tank, and timed his final push for then. It was the smart move.

Lastly:

1. if you had asked Evans after Prata Nevoso if he could be in this position, he was have said 'yes.' No other challenger save Sastre could say that.
2. Sastre was strongest today, then Schlecklet, then Evans. The rest had nothing more to give, and spent it all in their attacks early on.
 

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