Cadel Evans casts doubt over Bradley Wiggins' chance of winning Tour de France

CADEL Evans intends to exploit Bradley Wiggins's inexperience in a high-stakes game of Tour de France brinkmanship tonight.

Cadel Evans

CADEL Evans intends to exploit Bradley Wiggins's inexperience in a high-stakes game of Tour de France brinkmanship tonight.

Defending champion Evans is desperate to make inroads into Wiggins's gaping 1min,53secs lead in the 194.5km 10th stage from Macon to Bellegarde-sur-Valserine.

Asked if Wiggins might be vulnerable, Evans replied: "You hope so, you need some optimism.

"If I was going to convince myself now he was unbeatable and unstoppable, well I might as well decide on second.

"He doesn't have much of a history over three weeks compared to someone like me.

"Most of the other riders in the first 10 (overall), we've seen them more at their limits, have more three-week Tours to judge them by."

Evans said he no option now but to be more aggressive.

"Absolutely - when you're two minutes down, you have to be able to make moves," he said.

"There's still a lot of racing to go and the second and third weeks to come.

"So I think things will really change in terms of the depth of quality we're seeing in the riders who are currently in the first 10.

"It will be a lot of reshaping."

Evans's comments came as former sprint star Sean Kelly declared Wiggins has mental chinks.

"I think Wiggins can win this Tour, if everything happens without a hitch or setback," Kelly said.

"(But) Bradley has always been fragile. A puncture or another upsetting incident can make him lose his head.

"Last year, Evans experienced some mechanical problems behind (Alberto) Contador, in the stage to L'Alpe-d'Huez, and if it had been Wiggins, he would have panicked.

"But to win the Tour, you have to know how to stay calm, overcome adversity, whatever it may be - and that, I'm not sure he's able to do."

Evans said he would have preferred to have performed better in the stage nine time trial, where he leaked 1min,43 to Wiggins.

But he is not downcast.

"We are mid-race and there's still a long way to go to Paris," he said.

"My performance in the time trial, of course I always want to be closer to the best guys," Evans said.

"It's always better to be winning in this line of work.

"But things are going on track, we're sitting here second, but most of all I have a great group of people around me to help me deal with all the challenges that winning the Tour de France has to throw at you.

"We haven't been in yellow, we've been close for the stage wins.

"It hasn't been quite as successful as last year's Tour.

"The hilltop finish, Sky really showed their strength and that was obvious.

"Again in the time trial, (Chris) Froome and Wiggins, I will give it to them, they were extraordinary compared to everyone else.

"From here on in we keep going, keep working at it and we'll see what shape the race will take from here.

"The second, third week it always get harder, riders get more tired and we have a lot of harder stages to go.

"It's going to open up more and more."

Wiggins also predicts the race will change.

"Cadel knows what he’s doing, he’s been riding a long time," the Londoner said.

"If it is over we might as well all go home. I can get home a week early. It’s not over. There’s still half of this race to go."