Once the Tour de France reached the Alps, Cadel Evans’ Silence-Lotto teammates, shown here protecting him in Stage 13, were nowhere to be found. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Cadel

Cadel

Cadel

Cadel

Cadel

For the second straight year, Cadel Evans finished second in the Tour de France, less than 1 minute behind the maillot jaune — 23 seconds behind Astana’s Alberto Contador in 2007 and 58 seconds in arrears of CSC-Saxo Bank’s Carlos Sastre this year.

Evans said his hard crash in Stage 9, apparently caused by Gorka Verdugo of Euskaltel Euskadi, sapped him of energy he needed in the final week of the Tour, primarily the Stage 20 time trial in which he needed to put 1 minute 34 seconds into Sastre to win the Tour but fell 1:05 short. Evans did ride into the maillot jaune in Stage 10 and wore it for five days, but he ran out of gas in the TT after being triple teamed in the Alps by CSC-Saxo’s Sastre and the Schleck brothers, Frank and Andy.

“There were more dramas than I expected or wanted and fighting for every second at the end was exhausting,” letour.com quoted Evans as saying. “The crash before the race reached the Pyrenees was very taxing and it cost me a fair bit of strength; I used everything I had in the second week and perhaps that’s the price I paid in the third week. It showed in the final time trial. I rode consistently and reached all the time checks well but I was just not riding as fast as the other guys. That’s the way it goes.

“I’m cursing one Spanish rider, number 29, who brought me down by accident but, well, that’s racing and there are a few years ahead of me yet.

“To wear the yellow jersey after such a selective week of racing was really something special and it was an experience that I think every bike rider wants to have. I’ve never worn a world championship jersey but it was quite incredible to be in yellow. It’s a good experience and I’ve learned things that will stand me in good stead for future Tours.

“To come back and finish second and be able to hold off the rider in third … that’s something I’m happy with. And I’m pleased that I was able to continue after the crash. To come back and get yellow was a bonus. There’s always room for improvement otherwise I might have walked away feeling content with eighth place but I’ve done a lot in the last four years to improve on that result.”

What Evans didn’t say is that CSC-Saxo Bank had a much better team than Silence-Lotto, which not only lacked the numbers to match CSC-Saxo but got substandard performances from those assigned to support Evans in the high mountains. Most disappointing was Yaroslav Popovych, who rode such a great Tour last year in support of Contador and Levi Leipheimer of Discovery Channel.

Popovych was Silence-Lotto’s high-priced hire to take the place of American Chris Horner, who wasn’t re-signed despite his great effort last year in support of Evans. Horner accompanied Evans on virtually every climb last year, amongst the Discovery triple team of Contador, Leipheimer and Popovych.

So, really, beyond Evans’ Stage 9 crash, the big difference for Evans this year was not having someone with him in the high mountains, as Horner was last year.

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