TdF Files: Flying high

It may be early days, but so far, there is everything to suggest Cadel Evans is ready, and some of his rivals are not, writes Anthony Tan from Les Essarts.

Two stages down, and we've already seen so much.

On Saturday's first stage, Alberto Contador, in a scene reminiscent of the windswept stage to La Grande-Motte at the 2009 Tour de France, was caught out again, as 78 riders sped away from the Tour favourite, some perhaps relishing his misfortune.

The Spaniard, who lost 1:17 to stage winner Philippe Gilbert by day's end, could not have avoided the fall, caused by an Astana rider crashing into a roadside spectator. But with spills beforehand and multiple traffic islands and speed bumps on the road to Mont des Alouettes Les Herbiers, should Bertie's troops not have been more attentive and proactive, and moved their man inside the first 30-50 riders?

Maybe he's not made of Teflon, after all…

Though Contador was not alone. It was also unusual to see other GC contenders caught out in the melée, namely Garmin-Cervélo's Christian Vande Velde and Ryder Hesjedal, and Astana's Roman Kreuziger (all three losing 1:52 to Gilbert), as well as Euskaltel-Euskadi's Samuel Sanchez (losing 1:17). Perhaps the latter is not so surprising, for the Orange Armada have never been particularly good in the Tour's opening week, and perennially force themselves to play a game of catch-up in the mountains.

Contrast this with Cadel Evans' BMC Racing team, whose men George Hincapie and Marcus Burghardt delivered in spades – keeping the 2009 world champ out of trouble and right at the front, prime time. Not only did they do that, they were largely responsible for augmenting the at-one-time-32-second-advantage to well over a minute by day's end.

And so fresh was Evans on the 2.2km finishing climb that partly resembled the Cauberg climb used in the Amstel Gold Race, the Aussie battler was second strongest on the day and was the only one close to Gilbert, eking out three valuable seconds on rivals Jurgen Van den Broeck, the Schleck brothers, Bradley Wiggins, Ivan Basso and Robert Gesink.

"George helped me really well going into the bottom of the climb and I was really perfectly positioned," Evans said. "I thought I would go conservatively but then a Katusha or Astana rider attacked and I got a bit closed in. I tried to go across to Gilbert, but it was just a little bit too late."

* * *

The time gained and morale boost must surely have had some impact in the following day's team time trial in Les Essarts.

As BMC Racing team manager John Lelangue told me the day before, the time gaps were never going to be huge, mainly because of the non-technical nature of the 23-kilometre course (combined with less than 10 metres of vertical elevation, it was nothing like the Montpellier TTT at the '09 Tour). But to finish as the second-best team, just four seconds off winners Garmin-Cervélo?

What an achievement! Félicitations, BMC!

And note this: Out of the top five teams in Sunday's TTT, BMC finished with the most riders on the same time as seven of their men brought home the bacon, placing Evans just one second off new maillot jaune, Thor Hushovd. "We've been quietly working away, doing our homework and keeping at it," Evans said afterwards. "Our first goal was not to lose any time and our second goal was to actually gain time. The fact that we were actually there, nearly in the running for the win, was really something."

Next test is Tuesday. The finish of the 172.5km fourth stage is not unlike the opening stage to Mont des Alouettes, except harder, as the Mûr-de-Bretagne averages 6.9% over 2km (Mont des Alouettes was 2.2km at 4.7%).

The locals call it the Breton Alpe d'Huez, and Jean-François Pescheux, ASO competition director, says: "The road rises in such a straight line that even from the bottom the finish is almost visible. It's going to be impressive, with steep ramps right from the bottom."

This team is strong. This team is united. This team is ready. This team has one goal, and we all know what that is. Bring it!