Cadel Triumphs in Fleche Wallonne
All Cadel’s partners at Winners Sports Nutrition congratulate him on his great victory in Belgium. Please see the full story as reported in The Australian:
WORLD champion Cadel Evans has won the Fleche Wallonne one-day classic ahead of Spanish duo Joaquin Rodriguez and Alberto Contador.
There is only ever been one computer read out to suggest Evans could be a champion road cyclist but measures of courage abound in his lithe frame.
Evans today showed it on the roads of Belgium in spades.
When Evans was told he was the first world champion to win the fourth of road cycling’s five monuments since local hero Claude Criquielion in 1985, he replied that he was only eight years old at the time.
Winning this most gut-busting of one day Ardennes Classics has seen Evans re-write the record books.
The first Australian to have won a professional road title, he can now add his name to being the first from Down Under to have won Fleche Wallone.
Evans from BMC Racing, a second tier team with big ambitions of doing well at the Giro d’Italia next month and the Tour de France in July, timed it perfectly after an aggressive race that had most of the pre-race favourites – including Astana’s Alberto Contador – in contention until the final surge up the final climb, the quaintly named Mur de Huy.
Spaniard Contador looked to have the win in his back pocket when he scrambled his way past the Basque rider Igor Anton of Euskatel-Euskadi in the final 300 metres.
But Evans, just as he did at the world championships in Switzerland last September to claim the coveted rainbow jersey, waited for the right moment to launch what proved to be the telling counter-attack.
Having ridden over the final few kilometres of the course just 24 hours earlier, he realised who ever was the strongest on the Mur de Huy, would take the day’s honours.
“Even though I’ve raced here several times, I never did a recon before a Fleche. BMC sport director John LeLangue took us out and I saw the climb in a different light and I realised that I was attacking too soon before,” Evans said.
“I found myself in a good position on the Mur and waited to launch my final attack in the final 100 metres.”
In winning Fleche Wallon, Evans becomes only the fifth rider to have achieved the goal having worn the rainbow jersey. The first was Ferdi Kubler in 1952, the last was Claude Criquielion in 1985.
“To race in the rainbow jersey is an honour and to win is even sweeter,” Evans said.
“I’ve been second before (in 2008), so to finally win is just great.
“It’s a special honour to ride with the rainbow jersey on my shoulders and the goal this season is to honour the rainbow jersey.”
Evans said he still had room for improvement as he now sets his sights on both the pink jersey at the Giro and the yellow in France.
But there is still the matter of tackling the final momument of the Ardennes Classics – Liege-Bastogne-Liege on Sunday.
The fact it falls on Anzac Day is not lost on Evans.
The only scare in the BMC Racing camp was the nasty fall at the 71km mark involving Evans’ team mate Karsten Kroon.
A patched-up Kroon still made it to the team’s celebratory dinner.
Team spokesman Sean Weide reports that the injuries to Kroon’s face are primarily contained to the right side.
“His face is extremely swollen and his eye is totally closed,” team director John Lelangue said.
“We will need a few days for the swelling to go down, then we will see how things will go.”
posted 2010 Apr 22 by Robert Boyd
