Alps next as Evans stays trouble-free

IT should hardly come as a surprise that the legendary climbs of the Tour de France's mountain stages will be decisive for the yellow jersey winner.

Mark Cavendish claims stage victory from Tyler Farrar

IT should hardly come as a surprise that the legendary climbs of the Tour de France's mountain stages will be decisive for the yellow jersey winner.

But for Australian Cadel Evans, Sunday's 15th stage was just as treacherous to his campaign as the steep ramps of the Plateau de Beille or Alpe d'Huez.

Evans came through the mainly flat but wind-buffeted 193km stage from Limoux to Montpellier to retain third place overall, 17 seconds behind Frank Schleck and 2:06 behind Frenchman Thomas Voeckler.

Andy Schleck is fourth at 2:15 and Spain's reigning three-time champion Alberto Contador is seventh at 4:00.

But two years after a similar kind of stage cost Contador 41 seconds, Evans is thankful for his BMC team's efforts to keep him up the front and out of trouble.

Their tactics might not have pleased the sprinters but, with three consecutive stages in the Alps beginning tomorrow, Evans said it is imperative to stay near the front.

"It's a sort of a conflict in the race where the sprinters want to be in the first position, but we have to be in the front and, sometimes, we have to be in their way at 10 or five kilometres to go," Evans said.

"Of course they don't like that, but we can lose the race at five kilometres because we have to at least be at three kilometres if something happens in the peloton."

Saxo Bank leader Contador added: "It might have looked like a quiet day on television, but it was a difficult day for everyone on the team. There was a lot of tension in the field and wind gusts measuring 70km/h."

Race rules dictate that riders involved in incidents not of their making inside the final 3km are credited with the same time as the group they were in at the time.

On Sunday, the only incident worthy of note was Belgian champion Philippe Gilbert's attack in a bid to win the stage and close his gap on Mark Cavendish in the green jersey competition.

Cavendish's Tasmanian teammate Matt Goss said Gilbert, a thorn in the Isle of Man sprinter's side, has to be brought to heel. "Gilbert went, and you've got to worry," Goss said. "You see how . . . good he is. We certainly had to make sure we got him back."

HTC-Highroad reeled Gilbert in and, with just over 200m to race, Cavendish emerged behind Australian lead-out man Mark Renshaw to beat Tyler Farrar.

AFP