Top five still possibe for Australian former Tour winner
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Cadel Evans (BMC) refreshed after the rest day(Image credit: Fotoreporter Sirotti)
Cadel Evans (BMC) would suffer and lose time on stage 8(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Cadel Evans (BMC) in action during stage 9(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Cadel Evans (BMC)(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Cadel Evans (BMC) greets the crowd(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
BMC's best-placed Tour de France GC rider Cadel Evans will fight for every second in Wednesday's individual time trial in the hope of recovering from a lowly 16th place before the finish in Paris, said his team manager.
BMC Team Manager Jim Ochowicz said the team would come out fighting on the flat 33km time trial finishing in Mont-Saint-Michel in preparation for a tough final week which could deliver a mass shake-up to the GC.
Currently 3:11 separate the 2011 Tour winner Evans in 16th from Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) in second. Chris Froome (Sky) has a commanding hold on yellow, a further 1:25 ahead of the Spaniard.
"We don't give up, the placings are going to change," said Ochowicz. "Heck, there's a lot to racing to go. The hardest part of this Tour hasn't started yet. We expect to see again a displacement of the general classification in a way that's unpredictable.
"The only outcome from this last weekend that was predictable was Chris Froome. Everybody else I think was a mystery, the way they had bad day, good day, bad day, good day."
Ochowicz said Wednesday's time trial suits powerful TT-riders. Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) has the best chance of winning he added.
"Tejay [van Garderen] and Cadel are ready for the race - they're going to prepare the race, they've seen the course," he said
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Evans - and van Garderen in particular - had a torrid weekend in the Pyrenees. Van Garderen suffered in the broiling heat and now lies more than half an hour behind Froome (Sky). Evans labelled stage 8 to Ax-3-Domaines the worst Tour performance of his career. He recovered on stage 9 and moved up nine places. He still believes a top five is possible according to Australian paper the Herald Sun.
Sam started as a trainee reporter on daily newspapers in the UK before moving to South Africa where he contributed to national cycling magazine Ride for three years. After moving back to the UK he joined Procycling as a staff writer in November 2010.
