Again, not sure of the numbers, but leading all the way up the Galibier (and dropping all but a few riders) the way that he did has to count as a top level climbing performance. It wasn't exactly one of Pantani's performances up ADH, but still, it was strong.
As somewhat of a minor Evans fan (being Australian I naturally took a little more interest in him than the average rider), I find a great contradiction in valuing him as a climber and trying to see him as 'cleaner' (not trying to being the clinic here, but often the clinic and road racing discussion go hand in hand imo, and is difficult to 100% separate) than some others. Arguing that he never did a supersonic time on ADH bodes well for that argument, but it doesn't bode well for him being a great, or very good climber.
In the 2006 TDF for example up ADH, Evans lost significant time to many of his rivals, who's times were let's say, interesting. But that performance can also be a good argument against his being a great climber.
In 2012 he rode strongly up the ****, back when we all were not sick of that climb. Second to Froome that day? Something like that. Anyway, his Tour performance that year fell apart, but that was a pretty strong climbing performance.
In 2005 he stayed with the heads of state on the way to Mende. Not exactly a mountain, but those were pretty strong heads of state (not sure if this term is really used much in the forum, but blame Phil and Paul for my constant use of it).
In 2006 he was in the final select group in the queen stage in the Pyrenees, well, until he lost a little ground in the final km or two. But being with Sastre and only behind 3 main contenders was pretty good.
I don't know too much about Evans' performances from the Giro and Vuelta, as I haven't watched those races as much as the Tour (preparing to be banned
), but what could be questioned more about Cadel, is his time trial performances. After all, in his era there was more ITT, and maybe it was his ability against the clock that was overrated? He was a consistently good climber, but he didn't take the multiple minutes always that maybe he should have in time trials, or at least he didn't take the time that his reputation suggested he should.
This is a very muddled post. It probably suits the perplexing nature that many of us find with rating Cadel Evans amongst the other greats of his era.