Rediscovering an admiration for C. Evans

[luckyboy]

His fans and supporters would say that he's too talented to go through his entire career without a GT win. I say that he wouldn't be the first rider with the ability to win a GT but to never stand on the top step of the podium. I'd say his destiny is in his hands. If he singularly focuses on the Tour as his ultimate goal at the expense of the Vuelta and Giro then he will retire without a GT win.

I think a Vuelta is the only one he'll be able to win now.

 

[bianchigirl]

The bottom line is you only win a 3 week Tour if you're prepared to get off the wheel and do something - Evans made one attack of any meaning, on the penutlimate stage, when it was far too little too late - the rest of the race he was content to sit on anybody's wheel. I was prepared to reassess my feelings about Evans being the biggest wheelsucker in the game when he won the World's but this race did nothing to reinforce that.

 

[dgodave]

The bottom line is you only win a 3 week Tour if you're prepared to get off the wheel and do something - Evans made one attack of any meaning, on the penutlimate stage, when it was far too little too late - the rest of the race he was content to sit on anybody's wheel. I was prepared to reassess my feelings about Evans being the biggest wheelsucker in the game when he won the World's but this race did nothing to reinforce that.

I dont buy it. Basso managed to win without any real attacks. He just rode Evans off his wheel on climbs so steep that "wheels" provided no advantage.
.
I dont fault Basso for this at all. Those climbs were his strong suit.
.

 

[BeachBum]

...the rest of the race he was content to sit on anybody's wheel. I was prepared to reassess my feelings about Evans being the biggest wheelsucker in the game when he won the World's but this race did nothing to reinforce that.

I'm reading, you, and Mrs Murphy says the same thing, but how do you explain stage 7? He WON that stage, you can hardly call that wheelsucking. Not trying to troll or anything, but how do you view that?

For my money, Basso had the best Giro, but I would rank Evans as having the 2nd best Giro. Top 5, stage win during a marquis stage and the points jersey. Not to mention he did that wearing the rainbow stripes. When was the last time a current WC has had that good a GT?

Not that I'm a blind fanboy, I can see his bad points as well as anyone. He DID choose to go to a weak team, he complains too much, he never should've said anything about being sick, and he got off WAY too easy for fighting with Righi-- who was the guy that punched Julich on the Champs years ago, wasn't he thrown out of the race?

 

[delbified]

the fact is, if Evans is riding clean and was taking it up to guys like Valverde and "A.C." in the GTs who were not, he's a hero. as is anyone else who was doing the same thing.

 

[Runitout]

The bottom line is you only win a 3 week Tour if you're prepared to get off the wheel and do something - Evans made one attack of any meaning, on the penutlimate stage, when it was far too little too late - the rest of the race he was content to sit on anybody's wheel. I was prepared to reassess my feelings about Evans being the biggest wheelsucker in the game when he won the World's but this race did nothing to reinforce that.

Guess you were watching a different race. I saw a racer who was the strongest in the race for the first 10 days, seen at the front quite a bit.

When he was gapped by other teams' attacks, which was quite a bit, he would go straight to the front of the peloton and drive it hard. The foreign press were saying how wonderful it was that Evans was doing justice to the arc-en-ceil and being seen so often at the front.

He only started wheelsucking (along with every other rider) when Basso was killing it in the hills. On the Mortirolo stage he was working with Sastre and Arroyo to close the gap.

I know you and MJM have a thing for Evans, and like riling his often deluded fans. But you lose credibility when you say he was wheelsucking in a race in which he was one of the most prominent and aggressive protagonists.

I certainly gained respect for him this race. I like that he's finally giving credit to stronger riders when they beat him. I wish he would quit with the excuses, however.

 

[richo36]

I dont get why so many people are so harsh on cadel, When you look at what he achieved this giro. And yet noone is being harsh to someone like sastre.

Sastre does have a good team to support him, Coming into the first real mountain stage he was roughly 7minutes behind the pink jersey. While basso, Evans and particularly scarponi were all 10+minutes. Sastre had a solid 3-4minutes lead on the eventual race winner!!! Yet noone is critical on how poor he was. Yes he had a few crashes in the first week but so did everyone. Why is noone critical of his poor results????

 

[rata de sentina]

The bottom line is you only win a 3 week Tour if you're prepared to get off the wheel and do something - Evans made one attack of any meaning, on the penutlimate stage, when it was far too little too late - the rest of the race he was content to sit on anybody's wheel. I was prepared to reassess my feelings about Evans being the biggest wheelsucker in the game when he won the World's but this race did nothing to reinforce that.

The bottom line is you (and a few others) are just trolling on this issue, as usual using hyperbole to hook a few Evans fanboys into apoplexy. It can be occasionally amusing I suppose as for some reason they are not clued up and go for the lure every time.

Personally, I think it's becoming a bit automatic on the part of you and your ilk as you see Evans' name in the thread title and trot out the "wheelsucker" "whiner" and "never attacks", the latter becoming a little unsustainable and has now morphed into "never attacks enough". ook!

 

[yourwelcome]

I dont get why so many people are so harsh on cadel, When you look at what he achieved this giro. And yet noone is being harsh to someone like sastre.

Because this forum doesn't have enough participants who care enough to be offended on Sastre's behalf, and trolling efforts from the usual suspects would be much less 'productive'.

 

[BroDeal]

How many people think that Evans will retire having won a GT? I would put some money (not an awful lot, due to poorness) on this happening..

I thnik this Giro was his last chance. The younger riders are about to replace him.

I would like to see him win Flanders or P-R.

 

[anth73]

I wonder how many of the armchair experts laying the boots into Cadel Evans actually watched the Giro d'Italia and read his blog?

He put the blame down to himself solely for not being good enough in the real mountain stages. He also praised Ivan Basso on his win and the great job his team mates did.

Well done Cadel on a great showing in the Giro. Far from a wheel sucker, he was voted as the best rider of the Giro by the journalists.

His window of opportunity in terms of winning a GT is more closed than open now, I'd like to see him move on from "having come second at the TdF by 23 seconds" and go into the TdF with the positive attitude displayed largely in the Giro.

Basta.....let's move on!

 

[JA.Tri]

Contributers to forums have a tendency to think that only the winner of a GT rode well and all other efforts were rubbish. They then bring into play their personal likes or dislikes of particular riders and let this colour their judgement and get into huge arguments back and forth. If you look at a ten year period (a good lifetime for most riders) only 30 riders maximum will get their names on the records as winners of a GT. Given that some riders will win more than one this reduces the list even further. So its no surprise that few riders will ever be that good/lucky.

So leaving aside the drug issue, we should applaud ALL riders who try to win but maybe fail. Give Arroyo, Scarponi, Evans, Vino etc their due and applaud their efforts in what was a great race. The fact they didn't win doesn't make them any less worthy. Also hating or loving riders is bogus when to be honest most of us don't know them personally and why we hate or love them is pretty tenuous.

Relax and enjoy the best sport in the world!

Agree. "Failure" is not in the achieving, it is in giving less than your best.

Cycling is a team sport and seems to be (for the most part) increasingly so. Therefore to win a GT, you need to have talent, tenacity, guts, a team of dedicated cyclists in good form (again with appropriate talent), patience, luck and a good following wind. All this makes it extremely difficult to win a GT.

I suspect that Cadel's personality may place him at a distance from prospective team mates. If so, giving their absolute all may be more challenging, and this in no way questions his team mates' professionalism or dedication to Cadel or the team.

 

[FreeRange]

Has anyone seen this video? Its a humourous slant on Cadel keeping the Peleton in line.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCoprLj0hPs

I'd like to see a little more humour........

 

[auscyclefan94]

I thnik this Giro was his last chance. The younger riders are about to replace him.

I would like to see him win Flanders or P-R.

Yer... that's going to happen!

It's not closed. With an in form sastre and evans. they would of been 1,2.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Actually he had no case in the Xorret del Cati stage of the 2009 Vuelta. The course had been set up where at that particular point the barrier jutted out slightly. That was the point where Evans was cutoff and of course he responded just as you described. There was no ill intent on the part of Gesink of course and I'm certain he himself was completely shocked and clueless as to what the hell Evans was bellowing about until later on. Of course Evans admitted that he was in error, as he did in this year's Giro after his ill advised mobile brawl with the Lampre rider Righi (sp) that he initiated. As I stated before he's a broken record of excuses and emotional explosions that only tends to undermine his significant abilities and accomplishments.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Poor piti is suspended so the valverde fans kick evans! You sound like a broken record actually. In the heat of the moment it would of been easy to think the same thing with the gesink incident. He later apologised and riders showing some emotion is a good thing for the sport that can lack it. IThe Righi and Evans incident was BOTH of there faults EQUALLLY. Really you can't stop someone chasing.

I guess your just another hater....

(the forumites on here who hate me will be coming to get me after this)

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I'm fine with showing some emotion. But there have to be some limits. Righi and Evans was a bit of six-of-one, half-a-dozen of the other. But should Gesink really get headbutted for that?

Eric Cantona was 'showing some emotion' when he dropkicked that Crystal Palace fan. Inzamam-ul-Haq was 'showing some emotion' when he attacked those Indian fans with the cricket bat. You can apologise afterwards but it's still out of line to do that.

The problem for Evans is that part of what makes him react like that is how highly-strung and competitive he is, and that's also a key part of what makes him a great rider, so he can't get rid of that.

edit - and the only thing I'm 'coming after you' for is using the possessive pronoun 'your' as a contraction for 'you are'. This is your first language, and the foreigners here are schooling you. I don't mean to be the grammar police (actually, I do) but this particular error is a particular bugbear of mine. Just like when people write "Piti" when that's just a common typo for "a particularly upstanding, fine, decent, clean-cut young man from Murcia with a fine and totally natural head of hair".

edit of edit - yes, I do recognise the irony of that statement, even though it's intended as a joke, when I have an avatar with 'Piti' clearly transcribed in it.

 

[Night Rider]

Eric Cantona was 'showing some emotion' when he dropkicked that Crystal Palace fan.

At least he did it with style

 

[peloton]

Evans must be one of the least liked rider inside the peloton?
I liked how he fought in the Giro, but when I saw the rainbow fist fighting with other riders, it was a wtf moment.
Make friends, not enemies, a memo for Evans.

 

[Potomac]

Evans is simply a 2nd tier GC rider. When he was under the radar he got some podium results, but with the raised profile he is taken more seriously as a threat and now he can't just wheel suck his way to the podium.

 

[JA.Tri]

Evans is simply a 2nd tier GC rider. When he was under the radar he got some podium results, but with the raised profile he is taken more seriously as a threat and now he can't just wheel suck his way to the podium.

I went out shopping for a wooden spoon, but couldn't find one big enough.

 

[Sydney Sider]

Yer... that's going to happen!

It's not closed. With an in form sastre and evans. they would of been 1,2.

There are so many variables in races you cant just state if he was in form he would have won , from my point of view he looked like he was in the form of his life but was beaten fair and square by Basso.

You have to take those glasses off and see that Evans is not unbeatable like you think he may be

 

[BroDeal]

Yer... that's going to happen!

It's not closed. With an in form sastre and evans. they would of been 1,2.

Basso still may have won. A Nibali who had prepared for the Giro may have won.

Next year Evans will be thirty-four. Nibali will be even stronger. The same goes for the other young riders who are coming up. At some point Evans should realize that a GT win won't happen for him. He should at that point--and it is not far off--switch to one day races and stage wins.

I don't see why he could not have a good result at Flanders.

 

[JA.Tri]

Basso still may have won. A Nibali who had prepared for the Giro may have won.

Next year Evans will be thirty-four. Nibali will be even stronger. The same goes for the other young riders who are coming up. At some point Evans should realize that a GT win won't happen for him. He should at point--and it is not that far off--he should switch to one day races and stage wins.

I don't see why he could not have a good result at Flanders.

Agreed. The Giro was a great opportunity for Cadel. Ifs and maybes are never going to cut it. For whatever reason Cadel did not win and Basso was a deserving winner.

The door has not closed on a GT win for Cadel. However, as per above, his age and the constant stream of excellent riders joining the peloton (and those already present) provide an increasing obstacle between Cadel and that "door".

 

[Terror of Tashkent]

The Good Cadel and the Bad Cadel

Cadel has been an absolute revelation ever since his WC win - however, did he really need to mention his sickness at the end of the Tour. Almost felt a Cadelephant whine coming along. See herefor my thoughts in detail

 

[microdose]

Guess you were watching a different race. I saw a racer who was the strongest in the race for the first 10 days, seen at the front quite a bit.

When he was gapped by other teams' attacks, which was quite a bit, he would go straight to the front of the peloton and drive it hard. The foreign press were saying how wonderful it was that Evans was doing justice to the arc-en-ceil and being seen so often at the front.

He only started wheelsucking (along with every other rider) when Basso was killing it in the hills. On the Mortirolo stage he was working with Sastre and Arroyo to close the gap.

I know you and MJM have a thing for Evans, and like riling his often deluded fans. But you lose credibility when you say he was wheelsucking in a race in which he was one of the most prominent and aggressive protagonists.

I certainly gained respect for him this race. I like that he's finally giving credit to stronger riders when they beat him. I wish he would quit with the excuses, however.

+1.............................