Analysis: Low-profile Evans claims spectacular Tour win

I liked this analyses, as I think it is the most accurate. It corroborates opinions expressed earlier in this blog.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/24/us-cycling-tour-idUSTRE76N2BT20110724

Schleck says he’s happy to finish on podium with brother, vows to win Tour another year

And that's a problem. Andy Schleck (and Frank Schleck) did a great Tour. They showed talent, panache and they looked overall more like old fashioned, courageous fighters. I know I repeat myself: the meticulous preparation and execution a Lance Armstrong would have deployed were not there with the Schlecks. Oh yes, I saw a picture of Andy in a wind channel. Photo-op or innovation? But Nygard's comments in this article about evaluating situations, tend to confirm that the preparation was a little bit old fashioned.

Cadel Evans prepared and executed religiously. That brought him to heaven. With less panache than Andy Schleck, but with certainly talent too, discipline and method that helped in the minutes of hardship and that most of all, brought him with significant reserves to the time trial where he could unleash that cushion of energy.

The Washington Post here has some good and enlightening comments:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/schleck-says-hes-happy-to-finish-on-podium-with-brother-vows-to-win-tour-another-year/2011/07/23/gIQA3QcRVI_story.html

Tour de France with Andy Poulidor or was it Raymond Schleck?

The weeks to come will be the time for introspection. My headline suggests that we are in an inevitable cycle of second places, that we have known with Raymond Poulidor. Both Raymond Poulidor and Andy Schleck are fine characters and talented athletes. But is Andy Schleck doomed, like Poulidor? I like to insist on some thoughts, that I put up in my blog ….. 2 years ago, and I made a reference to it already yesterday:

http://egidethein.blogspot.com/2009/07/luxembourg-tour-de-france-armstrong.html

Now, compare that blog to the following article, in French:

http://www.eurosport.fr/cyclisme/tour-de-france/2011/evans-avait-tout-prevu_sto2882793/story.shtml

The most important lesson says this:

Invité à commenter ses trois semaines de course samedi soir, Evans a eu cette phrase: "J'ai fait un Tour cohérent." On ne saurait dire mieux. "Ça a été la clé de la course", ajoute-t-il. Il a raison. Malgré quelques pépins par ci par là, comme son problème mécanique dans le Télégraphe vendredi, il a, contrairement à tous ses adversaires, évité les fautes. Celles qui vous coûtent un Tour. Le Tour parfait n'existe pas mais Evans s'en est approché. Et ce n'est pas le fruit du hasard. "C'est l'aboutissement d'un long processus, explique John Lelangue, le manager de l'équipe BMC. On a bâti ce projet autour de Cadel voilà deux ans et tout le monde s'est mis à 100% derrière lui." "Cette année, confirme Evans, nous avons planifié soigneusement: sur l'équipe, dans les stages, l'équipementier, les ingénieurs.... Tout le monde a beaucoup travaillé pour me donner le meilleur vélo de contre-la-montre. Il y a eu beaucoup de préparation."

In one word, there has been a 2 years' quasi scientific preparation for Cadel Evans. No one will ever win the Tour again without it. Talent and panache is no longer good enough.

Congratulations to Cadel Evans, the Schleck brothers, Voeckler, Contador, and actually all the others who make to Paris today. Thank you for a great show.

Tour de France 2011: Cadel Evans and the Schleck Brothers.

The Aussie kangaroo beat up the Red Lion badly. Cadel Evans started to impress me by mid-Tour already, when he showed that climbing a mountain wasn't going to be a problem for him. He kept well under the radar though, and didn't get attention. He also saved forces, just participating, not initiating. He actually gets upset at his peers, if they don't chase when it would be his interest. Today he was impressive, a bundle of force, yet a particular and nice style. Sturdy bike too, to support the assaults of such an unleashed beast! The kangaroo has a yellow jersey in his pouch.

The Schlecks put up a nice fight. Maybe they showed some improvement in time trials, though not significantly enough to prevail. Martin and Voeckler and Contador too went deep into their reserves.

The strategy to apply for Andy Schleck was obviously either to get to today's stage with at least 3 minutes to lose, or to be prepared at a maximum for this time trial stage. He didn't have that time cushion. Preparing for the time trial is "complicated". This starts with scouting its itinerary. I was appalled to read that Andy Schleck reconnoitered the terrain only this morning. I took some issue before with the celebrity strategy that seems to prevail at team Leopard: too many photo-ops, and probably a deficit on getting down to business. I would rather have spent several days exploring the significant stages of the Tour, up to the last turn, the last meter.

Time ago I thought Lance Armstrong would have done such a thing.

Scientifically, not public relationally. See therefore my blog from July 31, 2009:

http://egidethein.blogspot.com/2009/07/luxembourg-tour-de-france-armstrong.html

Or simply drill down to July 2009 in the blog archive on the right. Nothing has changed to the rationale. To the contrary, the 2010 and mostly the 2011 experience give the thoughts some good validation. You can't win with your mouth. Only with your legs and a scientifically prepared head and body and strategy. And our boys have the great gift of extraordinary talent, that guarantees success after a good preparation.

Please read: Luxembourg, Tour de France, Armstrong, Andy Schleck and Radioshack.

Tour de France: Andy Schleck in Yellow, Frank Schleck in Twellow.

Today's firework somehow got wet by last week's rains, I guess. It went off, but then it just puffed up the mountains. The final bouquet needed a replacement champion to jump in, Charlemagne's Rolland who thought the Alps were the Pyrenees and the Schlecks were Saracens, and he blew his horn at Alpe d'Huez. Nicely done, beating the real Saracen Alberto. A good consolation for the team and its leader who lost his yellow jersey. It was a tough day, but a heroic one for him. Sometimes alone, he looked more and more like Mrs Doubtfire struggling with that yellow outfit. But no one can doubt he was doing all he could.

The Tour is now decided, except that we don't yet know for sure if it is decided in favor of Schleck or Evans. Which of course we can blame on Johny Schleck, Andy's and Frank's father: we are talking about poor planning here. Why isn't there a third brother Schleck?! One who would have 3 minutes on Evans now? And anyway, when by tomorrow Cadel Evans is beaten by both your boys, weren't you aware that a podium has three steps, and could accommodate three Schlecks!?

I unfortunately haven't any other wisdom to share for tomorrow. In all Evans (sic), the clock will be the enemy.

The Schleck Brothers, Tour de France, Stage 19 to Alpe d'Huez.

My global syndicated Sports and Culture Page. We all know Frère Jacques, don't we? Remember your kindergarten teacher? This is just lyrics of the day. Now sing along! And make it sound enthusiastic!

Frères Schlek-ke,

Frères Schlek-ke,

Dormez-vous?

Dormez-vous?

Sonnez Thomas Voeckler,

Sonnez Cadel Evans!

Conta dort,

Conta dort.

See you remembered. I loved your accent!

The year Andy Schleck won TWO Tours de France.

I kept quiet for a while, I couldn't gauge my men over the last two or three days. I couldn't really hold my breath, without turning blue, until uncertainty would subside. Now it has.

Gone for at least a day are the hesitation waltzes, the watch me, I watch you, the fine calculations similar to a pharmacist's count, whether to take risk already 50 yards from the arrival, or later, or to do a really crazy thing 100 yards away. No one showed even a glimmer of strategy, and tactics were rudimentary. Yet people suffered. The Tour is a big deal, excruciating, dangerous. But somehow we were missing the champion who showed guts, who would do his thing, show us, get us out of our armchairs. I missed my old hero Charly Gaul, the Angel of the Mountains, a climber as the world has never seen again. A legend who would defy gravity, and punish his opponents on the scary slopes of Galibier.

Andy Schleck couldn't wait for the Galibier. So there he went in the Izoard which not only made for a marvelous display of guts, but even for good tactics, the finest the Schleck brothers can play, and only brothers can play: it is fine if the other one wins.

So here it goes. Monfort is dispatched up front. Andy attacks, not looking left and right, leaving Frank in Contadors back, like a mosquito. Andy joins forces with team mate Monfort. He will either succeed going the whole way up the Galibier, but if not, the alternative kicks in. If the peloton, or rather the survivors of the peloton will catch up with Andy. Therefore Contador has to the work, maybe even Cadel Evans, maybe Voeckler the man in yellow if he has juices left. If that happens, Frank Schleck, doing no work, will be fresh enough to immediately place his own attack, and that would probably be much closer to the arrival. Barring unforeseen weakness, one of the Schlecks had to win.

Now we know how it turned out. Fine strategy, because it was. The Schlecks didn't have to play the alternative solution. Andy Schleck, though weaker on the last 2 km, seemed surprisingly fresh. Compare that to Voeckler, one step away from intensive care. as for Contador, I'm inviting him to come to Florida and try to beat me. Privately I claim to be the local King of the Mountain. As for the man under the radar, he had to come out today. Cadel Evans had to limit his losses all by himself. He needs still to be taken care of tomorrow, or he will remain a contender.

I would by now think that Schleck will win the Tour. I don't yet know for sure if it is Andy or Frank. If it is Andy, he might actually win 2 Tours de France the same year: the Tour 2011 and also the Tour 2010 if Contador is found guilty later in August when the delayed = denied justice will be spoken.