Team unity key to Evans success

CADEL Evans's wife says the most harmonious team environment of his career helped him win the Tour de France.

CADEL Evans's wife has credited the most harmonious team environment of his career as being the crucial element in the new contentment that helped Evans win the Tour de France.

Chiara Passerini, asked soon after the race about her contribution to his more settled mood this season, was quick to deflect credit to his BMC team.

Passerini agreed that Evans had been calmer and happier over the past three weeks than during his six previous attempts at the Tour de France, but insisted she was not the cause of the change.

"No, I think the team was the big thing because they were looking after him," she said.

"They became good friends. It was a really good environment. With this team, he has fun, he doesn't need to stress too much about things he doesn't need to.

"It's good with BMC."

Evans profusely thanked his team in his victory speech, which was a contrast to his often tense relations with his three previous Tour teams. Past teammates and managers have at times accused Evans of being prickly and self-obsessed, while he has complained of poor support and what he considered to be occasionally unprofessional operations.

John Lelangue, BMC's sports director, said he had never had any doubts that Evans could be a tour winner if he was given the right support.

Apart from avoiding any disasters while the rest of the 2011 field was struck by an unusually high number of mishaps, Lelangue said the victory owed much to a patient strategy of staying alongside the leaders without taking too many risks.

It had also required some man management of Evans to restrain his competitive instincts; Lelangue held back from Evans in the final time trial information that his rider was just two seconds behind the leader.

Lelangue said Evans challenged him when he found out later that he had been within reach of winning the time trial.

"I said: 'Cadel, I know who you are -- if I had told you, you would have gone full speed in all the turns to try to win the thing.' "

Phil Armstrong, the Australian pioneer who was his country's best Tour performer before Evans, said the victory was a culmination of clever planning by the team and years of preparation by Evans.

"He's a born climber, coming out of mountain bike riding, and obviously he is a very good time trialler, and he has really spent a lot of time focusing on his weak points," said Anderson, who in 1981 became the first non-European to wear the yellow jersey of a Tour leader.

"It's gone a long way from then," he said. "There have been other Australian stage winners but to climb up on to the top stage of the Champs Elysee and hear the national anthem is just magnificent. It sent a chill up my spine. It's nice to think I have had something to do with . . . what we have seen here today, and it makes you think where we are going to be in another 30 years."