Can Evans peg pack Sastre to win le Tour de France?
July 24, 2008
The Tour de France riders have completed the tough stage 17 mountain stage which took in the famous L’Alpe-d’Huez. The ride went from Embrun to L’Alpe-d’Huez. The stage included three sizable climbs which tested the legs of the riders and sorted the men from the boys.
Team CSC helped their rider Carlos Sastre take the stage win and with that the yellow jersey. The Spaniard now holds a 1 minute 24 second lead over his teammate, Frank Schleck. Bernhard Kohl is nine seconds further back. The pre-race favorite in many eyes, Cadel Evans is just one second behind Kohl and 1 minute 34 behind Sastre.
In stage 17 Sastre got his break going up the final climb to the summit of L’Alpe-d’Huez. Evans without the help of his team was not strong enough to accept the challenge of Sastre. Evans did at least battle to the line the best he could to not let Sastre take too much of a lead.
Stage 18 sees a return to the flatter terrain and should see a more predictable stage. The riders will travel from Bourg-d’Oisans to Saint Etienne in this 196.5km stage.
CSC who appear to be the team in control of the race will be working today to consolidate the lead Sastre has established. They know that Evans has the potential to chase him down in the time trial and re-claim the yellow jersey. Will this happen? The talk at work was that Sastre knowing he is close to victory will put in a do or die effort in the time trial and that Evans may only make up 30-40 seconds on the leader.
It will be an exciting few days as the tour makes its way to the French capital this weekend. As an Aussie I will be cheering for Evans as he attempts to become the first ever Australian to win the le Tour de France.
The tour concludes with stage 21 from Etampes - Paris on Sunday 27 July. In recent times whoever is wearing the yellow jersey going into this stage is not challenged and they just cruise into Paris and get to bask in the glory.
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