12/21/24
July 23, 2011
Cadel Evans Takes Yellow Jersey: In the next-to-last stage of the Tour de France, Australian Cadel Evans seized the yellow jersey by overcoming a 57-second deficit to Andy Schleck of Luxembourg and a four-second gap to his brother, Frank. Evans, a two-time runner up, is all-but-guaranteed to win because the final stage is largely ceremonial.
The Yellow Kangaroo.
Actually, that was Phil Anderson a few years ago, but I expect the French media will recycle it. After several years of being the bridesmaid, well done Cadel.
posted by owlhouse at 12:59 PM on July 24, 2011
The Eurosport commentator described it as the best TdF in 30 years, and I'd say it's the best in 20, i.e. the start of the Indurain era. Cleaner, harder, and the route choices made by ASO seemed to pay off. And we got Tommy Voeckler, the proletarian battler, once more holding onto yellow like a limpet, which is definitely a good thing.
posted by etagloh at 10:13 PM on July 24, 2011
Best TDF in years. So many battles, so many subplots, lots of drama the whole way through. The competitors really seemed to respect each other, which gave it a better vibe too. From day-to-day, it was very hard to predict stage winners and team tactics - the early attacks in the Alps, in particular, were surprising. The unpredictability throughout the 3 weeks made it exciting virutally every stage. Andy, dude, you gotta work on that time trialing some more or you will likely never wear yellow in Paris.