Tour de France 2009
Out of context: Reply #99
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The hapless Cadel Evans, once named among the pre-race favourites but now languishing in 32nd place, almost 40 minutes behind Contador. Mystery envelops the exact nature of the breakdown in relations between the Australian and his Silence-Lotto team, but the talk is of a major row on the evening of the stage four team time trial in Montpelier, since which his teammates willingness to support him has evaporated.
Certainly the presence of Jurgen Van Den Broeck, supposedly one of Evans’s key helpers, in a series of breakaway attacks over the past few days has only fuelled the theory that Evans’ days at Silence-Lotto — his contract ends in 2010 — are numbered. The Australian has never finished out of the top ten in the Tour, yet is now struggling to finish in the top 30.