Until the start of the Giro d’Italia three weeks ago in
Napoli, there were significant speculation about who should be the team leader
for BMC at the 2013 Tour de France. Cadel
Evans, the nature choice, struggled through his early races. He could not even rely
on one of race strengths – the time trial – to lift his position on the general
classification. Whereas, young lieutenant, Tejay van Garderen, was looking more
and more like the anointed one with strong performances at Critérium
International and Paris to Nice: the race to the Sun.
Five weeks from the start of the Giro, Evans announced to La
Gazzetta dello Sport that he would be at the start line in Napoli. "I’m going to ride the Giro. And I want
to make it clear, I won’t be riding it for training but to get back to my best
level” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
Van Garderen must have had mixed feeling about this news -
was Evans at the age of 36 years old capable of performing at the highest level
in two grand tours or was it team management gently suggesting that Evans
should focus on the Giro and leave the Tour de France to van Garderen?
Selecting Evans to race at the Giro was a masterstroke. By the fourth stage, Evans had moved into the
top 10 on the general classification. Four stages later, Evans he was sitting
in second spot, only 29 seconds behind Vincenzo Nibali. He was in striking distance to wearing the
maglia rosa.
But it all started to unravel after Stage 10. Cadel grip on second place was waning. The distance between him and Nibali had widened. Nibali and ex-teammate, Mauro Santambrigio
(Vini Fantini), exposed a potential weakness in Evans with a classic one-two combined
effort to the top of Bardonecchia.
Even with the time distance between Nibali and Evans
widening, BMC’s team president Jim Ochowicz had full confidence in Evans. Rupert Guinness (Fairfax Media) revealed that Ochowicz was favouring Evans for the
Tour de France at the start of the 17th stage of the Giro from Caravaggio to
Vicenza. This was confirmed overnight in
Cyclingnews when Ochowicz said “his
team will enter the race with a fixed hierarchy - Cadel Evans as leader and Tejay
van Garderen as his chief lieutenant”.
The leadership tension at BMC has filled many newspaper
columns and internet pages over the last three months. With van Garderen eventually winning the Tour
of California, there was little chance that media speculation was going to decline
without a strong statement by the BMC management.
But did Ochowicz reveal his team selection too early?
The moment that Ochowicz indicated Evans had ‘rock-solid
leadership for the Tour on BMC’, cracks started to appear. Evans lost
significant time during the second time trial from Mori to Polsa. He came in 25th place,
2 minutes and 36 seconds on Nibali.
Two stages later, Evans could not compete with Nibali, Uran or Scarponi
on the final climb to Tre Cime di Lavarado, losing further time and lost his
second spot on the podium.
Evans’ performance at the Giro exceeded everyone’s
expectations. While we all knew he would
be a top 10 contender, no-one expected him to secure a podium spot. But should be the leader of BMC at the Tour
de France?
Evan’s performance at the Giro confirmed two things – his
time trialling abilities are not at the same standard as they were in 2011 and
his dogged tenacity in the mountains is waning, leaving him exposed if he does
not have team support.
Whereas van Garderen showed in the 2012 edition of the Tour de
France and at this year’s Tour of California that he has the ability to climb
without team assistance. He may be the
only answer that BMC has to the Froome, Porte Wiggins Team Sky juggernaut when
it comes to town.
Ochowicz strong words of support for Evans before the Stage
17 start effectively meant that the BMC team leader could only be Evans. If Ochowicz waited another 72 hours to see
Evans’ campaign falter, we may have seen BMC select another team leader.
Only time will provide the answer to this statement.
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