The Sports Factor

Australian interest in the Tour de France has peaked this year because of the possibility that our very own Cadel Evans might just be there at the end, being awarded the winner's yellow jersey.

Transcript

This transcript was typed from a recording of the program. The ABC cannot guarantee its complete accuracy because of the possibility of mishearing and occasional difficulty in identifying speakers.

Finally this week to the world's most scenic sporting event: the Tour de France.

Australian interest in the big bike race has peaked this year because of the possibility that our very own Cadel Evans might just be there at the end, being awarded the winner's yellow jersey.

But whatever happens, it won't be an easy victory.

Evans is already wearing a bit of French pavement after a nasty fall, and between today and Champs d'Elysee there's an awful lot of hard riding to be done.

Rob Arnold is the editor of Ride Cycling Review, and is a long-time friend of Cadel Evans, in fact Rob is currently working on a biography of Evans.

Rob Arnold is in Narbonne, getting ready to cover the next stage of the Tour, and he spoke to me on a less-than-perfect mobile phone line.

Rob Arnold: I've known Cadel for about 15 years, and I don't think I've ever seen him be so relaxed. He's been in a lot of pressure cooker situations over the years, for example going into the Sydney Olympics he was very much the favourite for the mountain bike race. At home, that put a lot of pressure on him, but he was younger then. He is coping much, much better now with the weight of the world watching him. And he was expected to perform well at the Tour this year.

When we arrived for the start in Brest, almost 10 days ago, he was very much sought after by the media, both locally in France and from America and Australia and everywhere else, he's a very popular character. But he's coping really, really well. He's calm, and as he said last night, tranquil, no problems, so long as he gets some rest and gets the doctor to have a look at some injuries that he picked up a few days ago in a crash, then he's content. And I actually can't believe he's coping so well.

He made the mention that he was far more relaxed after finishing the 11th stage yesterday than he was on the day that he claimed the yellow jersey because when he claimed the yellow jersey it was done at the top of a big mountain and he had to fight very hard to make sure that he'd limited his time losses to some other riders who were up the road. And also it was cold, there was a lot of pressure, people were very excited and he was being pushed around and he had basically a sore shoulder and sore arms and sore legs from the crash that he'd had the day before.

Mick O'Regan: Now I think it's easy for Australians to underestimate the sort of critical focus that's put on riders in the Tour de France, particularly those that claim the yellow jersey. Cadel Evans has been criticised by some European cycling correspondents for his lack of panache, that the way that he so far hasn't really dominated stages of the tour, say in the way that Lance Armstrong did, or before him Miguel Indurain, or any of the great riders of the past. Is that a fair criticism do you think, that Cadel Evans doesn't go out and dominate the race like Armstrong did?

Rob Arnold: I think it's understandable that they say that, but what they need to do is take a look at the tactics that are required to win the Tour de France, and Armstrong raced in a different era to what we're in now; that is to say that it's not terribly long ago, but the circumstances in the Pelaton have changed a lot, with far stricter doping controls; the speed of the Pelaton is different this year; it's noticeable that the sport is cleaning up, and I don't really want to make reference to doping because that doesn't affect the way that Cadel's riding and he's 100% clean, he's putting on a good show because all he really needs to do is win the bike race, he doesn't need to win stages, he needs to make sure he's got the lowest aggregate time by the time he reaches Paris.

Mick O'Regan: Indeed. The Tour this weekend enters a very important stage when the famous climb up the Alpe d'Huez, occurs. Now when the race reaches the alps and the Alpe d'Huez stage, how decisive do you think that's going to be as far as ultimate victory in this race is concerned? Is Alpe d'Huez this year, the most critical stage?

Rob Arnold: It'll be the most fun to watch that's for sure. Cadel has good ambitions for Alpe d'Huez, but a lot of people do. A lot of riders really want to win that stage and contrary to what I was saying of course, Cadel wants to win stages as well, but the ultimate aim is to keep the yellow jersey in Paris. So if he attacks on Alpe d'Huez, I think he has a very good chance of winning. I think his team is going to do everything to get him to the base of that climb in the best possible position.

But there's probably going to be a few riders up the road who have escaped earlier in the day and there'll be a bit of a chase for Cadel to catch them, and just going on the strength of the guys that he's really racing against, like Frank Schleck who has won on Alpe d'Huez before. Mind you, he did so in an escape. Then Ricardo Ricco who's an absolute climbing sensation, we've seen him win two stages already, he's going to be very, very animated on the Alpe d'Huez near his Italian home. It's going to be definitely the stage to watch, but if it's the decisive one, no probably not I would say that the time trial the day before we go to Paris is going to be the day when Cadel truly wins the Tour, if he does so in fact.

Mick O'Regan: Now Rob, just finally because the quality of this line is a little demanding. You've mentioned Frank Schleck, the Luxembourg rider, there's also Denis Menchov, the Russian, and also Carlos Sastre from Spain. From that group do you see the most likely rival to Cadel Evans emerging?

Rob Arnold: Yes, that's a fair comment. I think Cadel's actually keeping a closer eye on Denis Menchov than anyone else, only because he is similar to Cadel's style of riding. He can limit his losses on all stages, and he's not terribly flamboyant like we were talking about earlier. But Frank Schleck is probably threat No.1 along with Carlos Sastre and the problem being that they're both in the same team. And CSC/Saxo Bank is just phenomenal at the moment, it's the one that Stuart O'Grady's riding for, they've got the world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara, they've got Kurt-Asle Arvesen, who won the stage yesterday. Each one of them is a star in their own right, and I think the power of numbers is going to really make CSC the biggest threat.

Mick O'Regan: The editor of Ride Cycling Review, Rob Arnold, on le phone from le Tour.

And that's it for The Sports Factor. Thanks to the team of producer Andrew Davies, technical producer Costa Zouliou, and to Sabrina Lipovic in ABC Radio Archives.

Guests

Rob Arnold
Editor of Ride Cycling Review magazine.

Presenter

Mick O'Regan

Producer

Andrew Davies