THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
GRENOBLE, France — Cadel Evans all but secured the first victory by an Australian at the Tour de France by seizing the leader’s yellow jersey after the penultimate stage on Saturday — capping one of its most dramatic editions in years.
The 34-year-old veteran, a two-time runner-up at cycling’s greatest race, took the lead by overcoming a 57-second deficit to Andy Schleck of Luxembourg and a four-second gap his brother Frank Schleck in the time trial in and near Grenoble.
On the victor’s podium, a red-eyed Evans was choked up, holding back tears before hurling the winner’s bouquet into the crowd.
"I really can’t quite believe it right now," said Evans. "I have been concentrating on one event for so long."
Although there is one more stage, the leader after the time trial is nearly certain to be the overall victor: Sunday’s finale on the Champs-Elysees in Paris tends to be a ceremonial ride because launching a successful attack on that flat last stage is virtually impossible.
This year’s edition of the 108-year-old race, with nail-biting tension through to the end, offered one of the most exciting finishes in years — and without a serious doping blight that marred past Tours.
The Schleck brothers, knowing they had lost, embraced after the finish line. Overall, Evans leads Andy Schleck by 1:34, and his older brother Frank by 2:30.
The 20th stage was won by Tony Martin of Germany. Evans finished second in the stage — seven seconds behind Martin — and was 2:31 faster than Andy Schleck.
Canada’s Ryder Hesjedal finished the day 62nd, dropping the Victoria native back a spot to 18th overall.
The riders set off Saturday in reverse order of the standings. Andy Schleck had the benefit of riding last, and said beforehand that he’d have the added inspiration of wearing yellow.
Riders described the course — mostly flat featuring two small hills — as quite technical, with a variety of tight turns. After morning rains doused the roads, sunshine had dried them up by the time the leading contenders left.
By the first intermediate time check at the 15-kilometre mark, Evans had already erased 36 seconds of his deficit to Andy Schleck and was 34 seconds faster than the elder Schleck.
At the second, at 27.5 kilometres, Andy Schleck’s lead had vanished — Evans was 1:32 faster. Evans then kept gaining as the stage progressed to the finish.
The looming victory for Evans, the BMC team leader, capped what has been a stellar and methodical performance over the three-week race. Unlike defending champion Alberto Contador and other main contenders, Evans was spared crashes. His only big hiccup was mechanical troubles in Friday’s stage — but he recovered without any lost time.
At a news conference, Evans said he first saw the Tour as a 14-year-old watching the successes of five-time champion Miguel Indurain.
The emotional Australian got especially moved when he spoke of former coach Aldo Sassi, who "often believed in me more than I did," and had hoped that Evans would win the Tour. The Italian died in December.
"For him today to see me now, would be quite something," Evans said.
Evans only won one stage this Tour, the flat Stage 4 from Lorient to Mur-de-Bretagne. But his overall victory attests to his pinpoint planning and clever pre-race preparation for the title that he has sought but narrowly missed for years.
"Today, we went through the process, like we had the plan every day — and the plan every day was A, B, C, D," he said of his team. "The key aspect to our Tour is consistency."
Plus, throughout the race, BMC stayed out of many crashes that wreaked havoc on many other teams, especially during the first week.
"We were criticized a lot in the first 10 days for not going forward enough," said John Lelangue, BMC sporting director. "But that’s the strategy, to consider every stage of the Tour de France like it was the last."
Evans has repeatedly been dogged by speculation that psychological toughness and a winner’s instinct was lacking — but showed a veteran’s skill at managing his effort over the three weeks to seize cycling’s highest prize.
"This is the victory of a complete rider," said Tour director Christian Prudhomme. "It is the consecration of a career."
.Evans had been regarded as a perennial underachiever until he silenced his critics to become world champion two years ago. And he enjoyed a solid build-up to the Tour, racing less than usual so he would reach his peak there.
This wasn’t Evans’ first come-from-behind attempt. In another penultimate-stage time trial in 2008, he trailed Carlos Sastre of Spain by 1:34. Evans was only able to erase 29 seconds of his deficit and finished second overall.
The previous year, he was only 23 seconds behind Contador in second place.
Those were doping-marred races. Leader Michael Rasmussen of Denmark was kicked out of the 2007 Tour for lying about his training whereabouts when he missed pre-race doping tests. The next year, third-place finisher Bernard Kohl of Germany was among several riders exposed as cheats.
The International Cycling Union has since made a top priority of rooting out doping, with hundreds of tests conducted at the race this year.
Evans said he doesn’t know whether the stiffer controls helped make his victory possible.
"I think the best thing I can do as an athlete is to be a good example," Evans said. "Others can make their own opinions."
The Schlecks — whichever one — were vying to be the first Luxembourg rider since Charly Gaul was the first and only from winner from that country to win, in 1958.
As second and third overall, they will be the first brothers to share the Tour’s winners podium on the Champs-Elysees on Sunday.
"I’ll be on the podium with my brother, that’s fantastic, everybody is happy. Of course I cannot jump in the air, because I was supposed to win the Tour," Andy Schleck said. "Congrats to Cadel — he fought until the end, rode a perfect race. So did I but only one can win."