Tour De France

Wow ! If you have not watched tour de france before, this year has really been a roller coaster ride. I have not watched the Tour since Lance Armstrong retired, but this year Australia have a representative in the tour - Cadel Evans who might come this weekend be the tour De France champion. Of course he is no Lance Armstrong, Lance is a one-off a phenom who by all accounts would not be matched for a long long time. Lance was an excellent climber and also a great time-trialist. Unforuntately, there is no one else in this tour who is good at both.

This year, the yellow jersy have changed 7 times and hopefully come this weekend will change for the eighth and final time. I will be sure to cheer on our Aussie man and hope that for once a champion will come from the land down under.

Below is a report of the current race :

Cadel's time to shine: trial to determine Tour

BY JUSTIN DAVISCYCLING
25/07/2008 12:00:00 AM

Cadel Evans faces a huge test of his renowned time trialling prowess in tomorrow's ''race of truth'' as his Tour de France title bid hangs in the balance.
Evans finally succumbed to the combined climbing might of the Danish CSC team led out by fellow Australian Stuart O'Grady on the final day in the Alps, though he did a good job of limiting the damage.
But after starting eight seconds from the overall lead he dropped to 1min 35sec behind the new leader, Spaniard Carlos Sastre of CSC, who scorched ahead on the legendary 14km closing climb to the summit of l'Alpe d'Huez to win Wednesday's 17th stage.

''It's not so bad but I'd rather be five minutes in front,'' Evans said.
With little expected to change on the next two stages, the race looked likely to be decided in tomorrow's penultimate 20th stage time trial, known as the race of truth. Commonwealth Games time trial gold medallist Evans will be in his element.

The question was whether fourth-placed Evans had given up too much time to Sastre, who led by 1min 24sec from teammate Frank Schleck with Bernhard Kohl third at 1min 33sec.
The good news for Evans was that major time trial rival Denis Menchov of Russia was a further 1min 05sec behind him in fifth, though still an obvious threat.
In normal circumstances, the Aussie would hope to take at least two minutes from Sastre in the 53km race from Cerilly to Saint-Amand-Montrond.
Even Sastre doubted his prospects. ''In the time trial, against riders like Evans and Menchov, I don't think I have much of a chance,'' Sastre said.

''Right now, I don't want to think about 1:34. All I want to do is recuperate ahead of Saturday.''
Yet Evans's Silence team manager, Marc Sergeant, is an anxious man.
''Less than a minute's deficit to Sastre would have been better, but we're still in contention,'' the Belgian said.

''If we still have a 1:34 deficit on the morning of the time trial, we could be okay. It's 50-50.''
In the shorter fourth stage time trial raced over 29.5km, Sastre finished 1min 43sec behind winner Stefan Schumacher with Evans fourth, at 21.
It's all too familiar for Evans who faced a similar scenario last year when he was runner-up to another Spaniard, Alberto Contador, despite taking 1min 27sec off him in a similar distance time trial to finish just 23sec behind.

''Last year it was a bit of a Hollywood ending, in fact it was too original for Hollywood. I have a knack for this at the Tour,'' Evans said. ''We'll see on Saturday. This will really become the race of truth.''

Evans's countryman O'Grady played a key role for Sastre and his CSC team on stage 17, helping set the pace on the early ramps of the Col de la Croix de Fer climb before letting Fabian Cancellara take over to set a more punishing pace.
O'Grady went up the last climb at his own rhythm, but listening with delight as he followed Sastre's progress in his earpiece.

''I was hearing it [the time gaps] over the radio, it was awesome. It was giving me goosebumps,'' O'Grady said after finishing 38min behind Sastre. AAP/AFP

LETS CHEER OUR AUSSIE MATE.