Cadel Evans still has mountain to climb

AFTER 1200km of the Tour de France, Cadel Evans is smiling.

AFTER 1200km of the Tour de France, Cadel Evans is smiling.

The man from Barwon Heads in Victoria has covered the first week of the race to Paris, where it will end on July 24, demonstrating a new-found confidence built around a belief this will be his year to win the event and make Australian sporting history.

A week ago in the Vendee region, Evans showed great determination to succeed when he opened with a fighting second on the first stage to Les Herbiers.

Openly disappointed and emotional, he blamed a late attack on the finishing climb as the reason for not pulling on the leader's yellow jersey.

As the week unfolded, his American BMC team continued to ride in the belief this is the Aussie's year, and have made sure he has been in the right place at the right time when the day's decisive moves have been made.

Twice finishing second, overall this time Evans has had a perfect preparation for the event no Australian has won, and he has used his head as well as his riding talents to give himself the best chance of leading the way when the mountains start.

After last Sunday's crucial second-day team time trial, BMC's Belgian team manager, Jean Lelangue said: "You have all ridden like true professionals today." He was referring to the way the nine-man team had pulled as one to produce an outstanding second-place finish that was not expected.

In contrast, while Evans drew admiration from all quarters, defending champion Alberto Contador, the Spaniard who rides under the cloud of a pending final decision on a positive drugs test from last year's race, has had a lamentable start.

He crashed with 10km to go on the first day and never regained the pack, leaving him 1min 20sec down. Then in the team time trial, he went further back, putting him 1min 41sec behind Evans.

Last year, the Spaniard was 61s behind Evans at a similar stage but came back to eclipse everyone in the mountains. On Wednesday, he fell twice but regained the pack while on Thursday he was forced to change bikes and again ride hard to catch up.

The mountains cannot come too soon for him. As 100 years of the Alps are being celebrated in the final week, this is by design a very mountainous race once it gets into the Pyrenees on stage 12, from Cugnaux to the summit of Luz Ardiden on Thursday.

From this point, Evans will need to shadow the world's best climber and restrict his losses should he lose sight of him.

None of the favourites, other than Contador, has faltered, but the journey across Vendee, Brittany and Normandy have been hazardous, to say the least.

Crashes caused by strong crosswinds and those anxious to get a result before the mountains have been numerous.

On Wednesday, Slovenian Jani Brajkovic (RadioShack), fell on his head after an accident and was taken to hospital, leaving the team to decide on a new leader that will likely be American Chris Horner, as the mountains approach.

One of the riders who has been assigned the invidious task of nursing Contador is Tasmanian Richie Porte, in his first Tour.

He has had a hard week helping to repair Contador's problems and as the weekend approached, he was looking more than a little jaded.

Adelaide's Stuart O'Grady, in his 15th Tour, is also charged with playing housemaid to another favourite, Andy Schleck, the runner-up to Contador, for the past two years.

The bionic man of Australian sport, who has broken most bones in his body in this race, is riding better than ever and is at the front for Schleck on a daily basis.

But on Thursday, Australia's newest addition to the Tour de France, Matthew Goss, failed to give Tasmania a stage victory when, in the rain at Lisieux, he narrowly missed outsprinting the Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen.

But it is only a matter of time before Gossy joins the growing list of successful Aussies.