Cadel Evans

Cadel Lee Evans (born 14 February 1977 in Katherine, Northern Territory) is an Australian professional racing cyclist for UCI ProTeam BMC Racing Team and winner of the 2011 Tour de France. In 2007, Evans became the first Australian to win the UCI ProTour. Before turning to road cycling in 2001, Evans was a champion mountain biker, first riding for the Diamondback MTB team, then for the Volvo-Cannondale MTB team, winning the World Cup in 1998 and 1999 and placing seventh in the men's cross-country mountain bike race at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. He became the first Australian to win the UCI Road World Championships cycling event on 27 September 2009 in Mendrisio, Switzerland. In 2011, Cadel became the first Australian to win the Tour de France in the race's 108 year history.

o7'o Cadel Evans interview in yellow o7'o


SBS Tour de France: Cadel Evans post Stage 18


Cadel Evans 2011 Tour de France Champion


SBS Tour de France: Cadel Evans wins Stage 4


SBS Tour de France: Cadel Evans winner 2011 TDF




Career

Early years


Cadel Evans in Bonn, Germany 2005

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Evans started his international career as a member of the Australian Institute of Sport mountain bike (MTB) team, under head coach, Heiko Salzwedel and MTB coach Damien Grundy, both renowned in their field. He won silver medals at the 1997 and 1999 under-23 world championships and bronze

medals at the 1995 junior world road time trial championship and junior world mountain bike championship.
He has ridden for Saeco (2001), Mapei (2002) and Team Telekom (2003–2004). For 2005 he joined Davitamon-Lotto and came eighth in his first Tour de France, the first Australian in the top ten since Phil Anderson.
Early successes included overall wins in the 2001 and 2004 editions of the Tour of Austria, fifth in the Deutschland Tour in 2005, a stage win of the Tour Down Under in 2002, winning the mountains classification in the Tour Down Under in 2006, 14th in the 2002 Giro d'Italia (he wore the leader's jersey, Maglia Rosa for one day), and Commonwealth Games time trial champion in 2002.
[edit]2006
Evans bettered his performance in 2006, finishing fourth in the 2006 Tour de France, after the disqualification of Floyd Landis. He won the Tour de Romandie, beating the Spaniards Alberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde on the last stage, a 20 km time trial around Lausanne.
[edit]2007
In the 2007 Tour de France, Evans finished runner-up to Contador. He won the stage 13 Time Trial and came second in the stage 19 Time Trial. Evans finished fourth in the 2007 Vuelta a España. He came fifth in the world championship and sixth in the final UCI ProTour race, the Giro di Lombardia, securing the 2007 UCI ProTour with 247 points ahead of Davide Rebellin and Alberto Contador.
In 2006 and 2007 he was named Australian Cyclist of the Year.
[edit]2008
Evans was a favorite to win the 2008 Tour de France because Contador was not allowed to participate as his team Astana were not invited. Evans held the yellow jersey from stages 10 to 14. However, during Alpe d'Huez on stage 17, Carlos Sastre of Team CSC took 2 minutes 15 seconds from Evans. By the penultimate stage time trial, Evans needed to ride 1 minute 34 seconds faster than Sastre. He beat Sastre and jumped to second place but remained 58 seconds behind at the end of the Tour.
After recovering from a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament,[3] Evans contested the 245 km mens road race at the Beijing Olympics, finishing 15th, 22 seconds behind Samuel Sánchez.[4] He placed fifth in the road time trial four days later.
[edit]2009
Evans won the men's World Championship road race in Mendrisio, Switzerland on 27 September. The win came shortly after his third placing in the Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain), during which he wore the gold leader's jersey for a day, although his race was marred by mechanical failure in the way up the Sierra Nevada mountain finish. A combination of poor team support and poor form hampered his 2009 Tour de France campaign and he was only able to finish in 30th place, 45 minutes behind winner Alberto Contador. He also scored victories in the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré and the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali.
The season saw Evans become one of Australia's most successful cyclists with two podium places at the Tour de France. He has joined an elite group of cyclists who have all worn all three leaders jerseys; the Maglia Rosa leaders jersey at the Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) in 2002, the Yellow leaders jersey for 4 days in the 2008 Tour de France, and the Gold leaders Jersey in 2009 in the Vuelta a España.
There was much speculation at the end of the 2009 season of Evans looking for a new team to better support him at the 2010 Tour. After Evans became world champion he seemed to commit himself fully to helping teammate Philippe Gilbert. To many, this was evidence of a happier relationship between Evans and Silence-Lotto. However, it was then revealed that Evans was to depart the team, with the team citing his reason for leaving was "to look for new challenges".[5]
A biography, Cadel Evans: Close To Flying, was published by Hardie Grant Books in November 2009.[6]
[edit]2010
In 2010, Evans moved to the BMC Racing Team.[7] He has since had success in the 2010 Flèche Wallonne and he held the Maglia Rosa after Stage 2 of the 2010 Giro d'Italia. Evans won stage seven of the Giro d'Italia with a dominating sprint from the front of a small group. Evans ended 5th overall, winning the Maglia Rosso Passione (Points Classification) and the Azzurri d'Italia Classification. Evans also held the yellow jersey for stage nine of the 2010 Tour de France while riding with a hairline fracture in his left elbow caused during a crash in the previous stage. He lost significant time to the leaders during stage nine, which lost him the yellow jersey and put him out of serious contention for overall victory. He ended the tour in 26th place, 50min 27sec behind Alberto Contador.[8]
[edit]2011
Evans had a much more successful start to 2011, winning stage 6 and the general classification at the Tirreno–Adriatico, and the general classification at the Tour de Romandie, both of which form part of the 2011 UCI World Tour. Skipping the Giro d'Italia, Evans prepared for the 2011 Tour de France by finishing as runner-up in the Criterium du Dauphine, one of the major Tour warm up events. Evans finished third on stage one of the Tour, and won stage 4, the second Tour de France stage win of his career.[9] He led the mountains classification after stage 4 for one day, led at the end of stage 20 and stage 21, and became the first Australian to win the Tour de France.[10]
[edit]Personal life

Evans was born in Katherine, Northern Territory to Helen Cocks, a bank manager, and Paul Evans, a council foreman. He is married to Chiara Passerini, an Italian pianist and music teacher whom he met at the end of 2002. The two were introduced by a friend of her father's. His great-grandfather was Welsh, and Cadel was the name of three Welsh kings.[11]
In 2008, Evans wore a cycling undershirt with the Flag of Tibet and supported freedom for Tibet.[12][13] He said:
"Trying to bring awareness of the Tibet movement is something someone in my position can do. I just feel really sorry for them. They don't harm anyone and they are getting their culture taken away from them. I don't want to see a repeat of what happened to Aboriginal culture [in Australia] happen to another culture."[13]
Evans has stated that it was his early years growing up in Armidale, New South Wales, that was the inspiration for his cycling career.[citation needed] Additionally, the city's higher altitude gave Evans an early edge in competition. Whilst living in Armidale, Evans attended Newling Public School. Evans attended Eltham High School in Melbourne, Victoria during his teenage years.
[edit]Career Highlights

1993
1st U-17 XC Australian MTB Champion
1994
1st U-19 XC Australian MTB Champion
2nd U-19 XC Mountain Bike World Championchips
1995
3rd U-19 XC Mountain Bike World Championchips
3rd Individual Time Trial Juniors World Championship
1996
1st XC Australian MTB Champion
3rd U-23 XC Mountain Bike World Championchips
9th Atlanta Olympics Mountain Bike Race
1997
1st XC Australian MTB Champion
2nd U-23 XC Mountain Bike World Championchips
1998
1st Overall Mountain Bike World Cup
1999
1st Overall Tour of Tasmania
1st Stage 3
1st Young rider's competition Tour Down Under
1st Overall Mountain Bike World Cup
2nd U-23 XC Mountain Bike World Championchips
2000
7th Sydney Olympics Mountain Bike Cross Country
2001
1st Overall Tour of Austria
2nd Team Relay Mountain Bike World Championchips
2002
1st Individual Time Trial Commonwealth Games
1st Stage 5 Tour Down Under
1st King Mountains Competition
1st Stage 1 Settimana Ciclistica Internazionale
1st Stage 4 International UNIQA Classic
2nd Road Race Commonwealth Games
3rd Overall Tour de Romandie
14th Overall Giro d'Italia
Held Maglia Rosa for Stage 16–17
2003
1st King Mountains Competition Tour Down Under
2004
1st Overall Tour of Austria
1st Stage 2
2005
1st Stage 7 Deutschland Tour
8th Overall Tour de France
4th Stage 16
2006
1st Overall Tour de Romandie
1st Stage 5
1st King Mountains Competition Tour Down Under
4th Overall Tour de France
7th Overall Tour of California
2007
Champion UCI ProTour
1st Stage 2 ITT Test Event Beijing 2008
1st Stage 1 Part B TTT Settimana Ciclistica Internazionale Coppi-Bartali
2nd Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 13
2nd Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
4th Overall Vuelta a España
4th Overall Tour de Romandie
6th Giro di Lombardia
2008
1st Overall, Settimana internazionale di Coppi e Bartali
1st Stage 3
1st Stage 4 Paris–Nice
2nd Overall Tour de France
Held Maillot Jaune From Stages 10–14
2nd La Flèche Wallonne
2nd Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
3rd Overall Vuelta a Andalucía
1st Stage 2
7th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
2009
1st Road Race World Champion
2nd Overall Settimana internazionale di Coppi e Bartali
1st Stage 5
2nd Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Stage 1
1st Points classification
3rd Overall Vuelta a España
Held Jersey Oro for Stage 8
Held Maillot Combinada from Stages 8–11
4th Overall Vuelta al País Vasco
5th La Flèche Wallonne
2010
1st La Flèche Wallonne
3rd Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
5th Overall Giro d'Italia
1st Stage 7
1st Points Classification
1st Azzurri d'Italia Classification
Held Maglia Rosa for Stage 2
4th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
6th Overall Tour Down Under
Most Aggressive rider Stage 5
Tour de France
Held Maillot Jaune for Stage 9
2011
1st Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 4
Held for stages 4–5
1st Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
1st Stage 6
1st Overall Tour de Romandie
2nd Overall Critérium du Dauphiné
8th Overall Volta a Catalunya

[edit]Grand Tour General Classification results timeline
Grand Tour 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Giro 14 - - - - - - - 5 -
Tour - - - 8 4 2 2 30 26 1
Vuelta - - 60 - - 4 - 3 -

References from Wikipedia.com