TdF Files: Seeing is believing

If anyone needed reassurance, Tuesday’s fourth stage was proof again BMC Racing has the team to deliver Cadel Evans victory at the Tour de France, writes Anthony Tan from the Mûr de Bretagne.

If this happened one year ago, Cadel Evans may not be sitting where he is now.

The fourth stage was not won just after the peloton passed the banner signalling 20 kilometres to go, when some nong ran into Evans' derailleur, requiring a quick-sticks bike change, but should his team have been the one from the year before, or the three years before that, he may have lost it right there.

Instead, like crucial moments in previous days, it was his 1.89-metre-tall German team-mate, Marcus Burghardt, who came to his aid.

A Spring Classics specialist and driver made for the flatlands, Burghardt's raw power proved indispensable in bringing Evans back to the peloton and back in contention some 10km from the finish, which finished at the Mûr de Bretagne – Brittany's Alpe d'Huez, so the locals say.

And then, like crucial moments in previous days, it was his 1.91-metre-tall American team-mate, George Hincapie, riding a record-equalling sixteenth Tour de France, who took over from Burghardt to deliver Evans in perfect position to the base of the climb.

Averaging 6.9 percent but with its first kilometre averaging 9.8%, if Evans was not at the head of affairs by the start of the Mûr de Bretagne, he would have expended needless energy to get himself there – or he may not have got there at all.

From the base of the berg, it was all up to Cadel, who marked moves by Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank), Rigoberto Uran (Sky) and Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Omega Pharma-Lotto), then used Contador's lack of race savvy – or applied his race nous, depending on how you want to look at it – to sprint away from the Spaniard and take the win, even though Bertie thought he'd won.

Or, perhaps more correctly, hoped.

As if he was in school and wanted to answer the question even though he probably knew it was wrong, Contador half-heartedly stuck up his right hand anyway, the photo-finish later revealing he came up six inches too short.

"It was very close. I didn't know if I had it on the line myself," Evans later said, who has often been accused of not giving exuberant victory salutes. Well, at least he's never saluted too soon…

Although he is far too polite to say it, victory is often sweeter when the guy who thinks he's won and celebrates prematurely turns out to be the first loser – just ask Oscar Freire when he won the 2004 Milano-Sanremo, which came at the expense and utter embarrassment of faux celebrant, Erik Zabel.

"I still quite can't believe it," he said, moments after his victory, where he now sits soundly in second place overall, just a second in arrears.

'You said you felt tired coming into last year's Tour, having ridden the Giro beforehand. Could you tell from day one that you felt fresher this year?' I asked him at the press conference.

"This year, we had five-to-10 days' less racing and [were] better planned, and [we had a] better program to the Tour, because we had our selection to the Tour [guaranteed by way of being registered as a ProTeam].

"And I think we come here [this year] with an even better team," said Evans, "and yeah, so far, it's been successful. I've come close [to winning] before, so we'll see. We'll keep working on it."

It's not a bad thing the 34-year-old didn't inherit the maillot jaune that continues to rest on Thor Hushovd's muscled Norwegian shoulders, the viking from Garmin-Cerv̩lo. But with Saturday's eighth leg to Super Besse, the first of two back-to-back stages in the medium mountains, he could well be wearing the golden fleece sooner rather than later Рwhich he may chose not to keep till the Pyrenees or even the Alps.

Believe it, Cadel, believe. Because I believe in you.

Follow Anthony on Twitter: @anthony_tan