With his ambition of defending his Tour de France title being dashed in the mountains, Cadel Evans has said that he will give everything today to try to ace the time trial and end the race on a positive note.
The BMC Racing Team captain had hoped to be racing for the Tour title but instead finds himself sixth overall, nine minutes 57 seconds back. He suffered from a stomach problem and wasn’t at full strength when the general classification battle was being played out.
“For me, I had a couple of off-days that were really important days which pretty much put me out of contention for the podium,” Evans said after yesterday’s stage. “I'll see if I can just salvage something in my Tour tomorrow. We'll find out when I get to the first time check. I'll give it everything, but everything of 80 percent or everything of 70 percent isn't always enough for a Tour time trial. I’ll do what I can.”
His American team-mate Tejay van Garderen is similarly determined to empty the tank, although he has an additional motivation; he’s fifth overall in what is his second Tour, eight minutes 30 seconds off yellow, and is the clear leader of the best young rider classification.
Van Garderen was fourth in the prologue and again in the stage nine time trial; if he can step up a notch, that marks him out as a contender for today’s test.
“I'll empty the tank and see where I end up,” he said. "I had a good one last time. Maybe I can go even better.”
Like Evans and many other riders in the race, Van Garderen’s chances will depend on how he recovered from a very tough stage yesterday. It was expected to be easier than it was but with many teams yet to take a stage, it was a day which was full of attacks and a ferocious pace.
“It was brutal,” he said. “A breakaway went and Quick Step wasn’t in so they basically shut it down. Then after that, there was a really big breakaway went and then anyone who wasn’t there had to try to work. It was 220 kilometres and we did it in under five hours…it was really crazy.”