Tour de France 2015: Cadel Evans slams cynical public for taking gloss off Chris Froome’s stage win
CADEL Evans says Chris Froome appears untouchable at the Tour de France but it is unfortunate that his dominant performance was met with public scepticism.
CADEL Evans says Chris Froome appears untouchable at the Tour de France but it is unfortunate that his dominant performance to win Tuesday night’s (AST) Stage 10 was met with public scepticism.
Australia’s only Tour de France winner sat up to watch Froome obliterate his rivals on the mountain-top finish at La Pierre-Saint-Martin.
“Sky are incredible and obviously Chris Froome speaks for himself,” Evans said from Adelaide on Wednesday.
“Also Richie (Porte) his result to get dropped, stay there, recover and come back was incredible as well. Even Geraint Thomas as well that puts three in the first six.
“And it will probably be a good indicator to Paris barring incident, Froome is going to be maybe even untouchable for the overall and maybe they are racing for second place.”
Froome beat his nearest rival Nairo Quintana by more than one minute while fellow contenders Alberto Contador and Vincenzo Nibali lost between 2-4 minutes which may well have ended their yellow jersey ambitions.
But Froome’s performance to ride away from the field in the final 6km was met by a wave of scepticism on social media, including a provocative Tweet from the disgraced Lance Armstrong who said he did not know whether Froome or Porte’s performances were clean.
Contador’s team owner at Tinkoff-Saxo, Oleg Tinkov, hit back by Tweeting: “Please stop talking about doping and motors at @TeamSky. This is silly. They’re simply strongest here yet. I praise their approach.#TDF2015.”
Evans said it was hard for professional cyclists to cop cynicism if they know they’ve done the right thing.
“As soon as someone has a good success everyone is straight away being cynical, and maybe that’s human nature coming to the fore where there are a lot of people with social media who don’t necessarily have a well-informed opinion but they have the opportunity to express their opinion,” Evans said.
“People say what they want to say, not what’s necessarily true.
“(It’s hard) especially someone in Froome’s instance, maybe he’s dedicated however many years and made all the sacrifices and worked very hard to get to the level where he is, only to be criticised.
“As a professional athlete you have to be pretty thick skinned sometimes and especially when those criticisms come you have to stay focused and keep working away at it.
“Unfortunately you work harder, you work better and may even get criticised more ... at that point just go on with it.”
Evans’ final Tour de France in 2013 coincided with Froome’s first overall victory although the two went head-to-head on Stage 7 in 2012.
“The last time I rode against him was La Planche des Belles Filles (in 2012) which was his first stage win and I was second there and I think he knew the finish a bit better than I did and timed things a bit better,” Evans said.
“He was there riding for (Bradley) Wiggins and still had it in the end to win and that was probably the last time I went head-to-head with Froome.
“His riding style is quite clinical, he’s strong, he’s there, he goes and sometimes he wins — often.”
Evans, 38, was in Adelaide for the official opening of Siemens’ $5 million national service centre at Tonsley on Wednesday. A Siemens ambassador, he braved chilly conditions to lead a bunch ride through the city’s southern suburbs in his BMC Racing Team kit.
A week ago he was in Utrecht for the start of the Tour de France to see former teammate Rohan Dennis take the yellow jersey, and is now in the middle of a 12-day trip home to Australia before returning for the final week of the race to Paris.
“It’s all a bit new to me watching bike racing on TV I’ve got to say,” Evans said.
“I wouldn’t say I’m that good at staying up to the finish every day and I’ve had a few early starts this week as well.
“But there are some things you see on TV that you don’t see in the race.”
Evans said he was thrilled with Dennis’ performance to win Stage 1 and BMC’s ride to win the team time trial on Stage 9.
“Rohan — that was a really great way to get the Tour started, great for him of course but also when a guy goes out and does that on the first day straight away it sets the bar for the rest of the Tour,” Evans said.
“The team time trial you couldn’t ask for more and getting Tejay (van Garderen) through as well as they did, that was like winning a stage so then it’s up to Tejay and his two legs in the mountains.”