Tour de France rivals have mixed fortunes

[July 15, 2008]  HAUTACAM, France (AP) -- Cadel Evans overcame injury and pain to take the yellow jersey on the 10th stage of the Tour de France. His main rival, Alejandro Valverde, fell apart in the race's hardest climbs so far.

Having fallen hard on his shoulder the day before, Evans had been expected to struggle in the Pyrenees. Instead, it was Valverde who wilted Monday up the daunting passes of Tourmalet and Hautacam.

Veteran Italian rider Leonardo Piepoli won the stage. Kim Kirchen lost the yellow jersey to a determined Evans, who was grimacing with pain from his fall the day before.

"It's a bit an emotional roller coaster to say the least," Evans said. "I'm lucky that I've been very well looked after. My own osteopath who travels with me put me back into pieces."

If the 31-year-old Evans is a superstitious man, then he will be buoyed to know that every Tour de France contender who has finished in the yellow jersey after conquering the Hautacam pass has gone on to win the race itself.

Evans became the fourth Tour rider to wear yellow after completing the Hautacam, which rose for 8.9 miles and followed on from an even longer ascent up the Tourmalet. The others to finish in yellow after the Hautacam were five-time Tour winner Miguel Indurain in 1994, Bjarne Riis in 1996 and seven-time winner Lance Armstrong in 2000.

That fact was not lost on Evans, a day after he thought he had lost the race.

"I thought my Tour was finished yesterday," Evans said. "Like the others who took the yellow jersey on the Hautacam, I hope I can continue in it."

With his cuts still stinging from his spectacular crash, Evans rode through the pain to finish 1 second ahead of Frank Schleck of Luxembourg overall. Better still, he is 4 minutes, 41 seconds clear of Valverde, his big rival.

"It's finished for the podium," Caisse d'Epargne sporting director Eusebio Unzue said of Valverde's chances even of a top-three finish at this year's Tour.

Tipped as Evans' main rival for Tour victory, Valverde was dropped so heavily that he trudged up to the finish line nearly 6 minutes behind Piepoli, who dominated the final climb with his Saunier Duval teammate Juan Jose Cobo Acebo of Spain. The day before, Riccardo Ricco had given Saunier Duval another stage win.

This time, Ricco did not have the legs to attack. Wisely, he stayed close to Evans in a small group including other Tour challengers such as Denis Menchov of Russia, Carlos Sastre of Spain and Christian Vande Velde of the United States.

"From now on, everyone's going to be playing off each other," said Vande Velde, who is third overall. "This is not the top 10 that I would have expected by this time. I didn't expect Valverde to be this far back."

None of Evans' group managed to take time off each other -- all finishing 2 minutes, 17 seconds behind Piepoli -- but they left Valverde way back down the mountain, and he finished 3:35 behind Evans' group.

A crushing blow to Valverde's pride was that he could find no teammate to drag him up the mountains.

At 6.2 miles from the finish line he had a problem with his back wheel and needed a spectator to shove him along the road. Valverde soon found himself alone, feeling the isolation keenly.

First Evans attacked, then Ricco, then Menchov. None could sustain the attack, but quickly realized the weakest link was indeed Valverde -- who appears resigned to defeat.

"We will analyze the situation now," Valverde said. "The road is still long to Paris. But I think that, as from today, we should go for stage wins and stop thinking about the overall (classification)."

Evans, last year's Tour runner-up to Alberto Contador of Spain, wore the Tour yellow jersey for the first time.

"I couldn't believe it now and I couldn't believe it then on the podium," he said. "I'm definitely worthy of defending my number here. I feel great."

Unlike Armstrong, who benefited from strong US Postal and Discovery Channel teams, Evans largely fights alone.

"I admit that we don't have the strongest team in the race," he said. "But right now, I'm just satisfied about the work I've done today."

He'll be keeping a close eye on Schleck, who was close to taking the yellow jersey Monday, but was dropped by the Saunier Duval pair near the top of the Hautacam and finished 28 seconds behind Piepoli.

Kirchen, the overnight leader, fell to seventh overall.

Vande Velde is 38 seconds behind Evans. Menchov is 57 seconds back in fifth, while Carlos Sastre is sixth, 1:28 back.

"It's going to make for an interesting Tour," Vande Velde said.

[Associated Press; By JEROME PUGMIRE]

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