Cadel Evans
Cadel Evans (born 14 February 1977, in Katherine, Northern Territory) is an Australian professional cyclist. Prior to turning to road cycling in 2001, Evans was a champion mountain biker, riding for the Volvo-Cannondale MTB team, winning the World Cup in 1998 and 1999 and placing 7th in the Men's cross-country mountainbike race at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Career
Cadel Evans started his International career as a member of the Australian Institute of Sport MTB team, under the leadership of A.I.S. Head Coach, German born Heiko Salzwedel and MTB Coach Damien Grundy. He was an exceptional Mountain Biker, winning Silver medals at the 1997 and 1999 MTB U23 World Championships, but also won Bronze medals at the 1995 Junior World Road Cycling Time Trial Championships and Junior World Mountain Bike Championships.
During his career on the road he has been a member of the following teams: Saeco (2001), Mapei (2002), 2003–2004 T-Mobile Team (then named Team Telekom). For the 2005 season he signed with Davitamon-Lotto, and on his first Tour de France later that year achieved a magnificent 8th place in the overall General Classification, the first Australian to place in the top ten in the Tour de France since Phil Anderson. Evans demonstrated his climbing skills by often riding in groups with Lance Armstrong, Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich in the Tour's mountain stages. He bettered this performance in 2006, finishing 5th overall in the General Classification. In the 2007 Tour de France, Evans finished runner up in the General Classsification to Alberto Contador, cementing himself as one of the best cyclists in the world and highest placed Australian ever in Le Tour. He dominated riders such as Alexander Vinokourov, Carlos Sastre, Levi Leipheimer and Alejandro Valverde in the mountains, and finsished second in both Time Trials. In the Time Trial in Albi, Evans was beaten only by Alexander Vinokourov, who was later found guilty of doping during that particular stage and was subsequently banned from cycling, handing Evans the stage victory.
In 2006, he won the prestigious Tour de Romandie, snatching the leader's jersey off two Spaniards, Liberty Serguros' Alberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde from the Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears team, on the last stage (a 20.4 km Individual Time Trial around the Swiss city of Lausanne).
Some of his other successes as a road cyclist include a stage win in the Austria Tour in 2001, overall win of the Austria Tour 2004, 5th in the Tour of Germany in 2005, a stage win of the Tour Down Under in 2002, winning the Mountains Classification in the Tour Down Under in 2006, fourteenth place in the 2002 Giro d'Italia (he wore the leader's jersey, Maglia Rosa for one day), and Commonwealth Games time trial Champion in 2002. In 2006 he was awarded Australian Cyclist of the Year, and is expected to pick the award up again in 2007.
Here is an excerpt of an interview after stage 16, of the 2005 Tour de France.
Journalist: This stage in very difficult circumstances today for you, any particular emotions fueling you today?
Cadel Evans: A lot of emotions, you know, I've been, down and out, had two really bad years and there was a lot of, you know, I've had a really rough last two years and a lot of people have forgotten what sort of rider I am. I always believed in myself and some people really believed in me and I really thank them for that. This is all for all the people that believed in me: Marc Sergeant, the Davitamon-Lotto team, my girlfriend, my family, my really good friends who believed in me and stuck by me for the last two years because it hasn't been a very good two years for me and now you're seeing the old Cadel come back.[1]
Major results
- 2002
- 1st, Road Time Trial Commonwealth Games
- 1st, Stage 5, Tour Down Under
- 1st, Stage 1, Settimana Ciclistica Internazionale
- 1st, Stage 4, Intl UNIQA Classic
- 2nd, Road Race Commonwealth Games
- 2004
- Winner stage 2, Tour of Austria
- Overall Winner, Tour of Austria
- 2005
- 8th Overall, Tour de France
- 2006
- 1st Overall and Stage 5, Tour de Romandie
- 5th Overall, Tour de France
- 2007
- 2nd, Overall and Stage 7; 4th, Stages 3 and 4, Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
- 4th, Overall, Tour de Romandie
- 1st, Stage 13, Tour de France
- 2nd, Stage 19, Tour de France
- 2nd Overall, Tour de France
References
- ^ SBS Television