Team tried to keep world champion’s injury secret as long as possible
As the saying goes, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times; that sums up Cadel Evan’s 2010 Tour de France experience. From the highs of taking the yellow jersey to the lows of almost dropping out of the race due to a broken elbow, the race didn’t pan out as he had hoped. Yet he showed great reserves of courage and did his reputation as a driven battler plenty of good.
Evans hit the deck just six kilometres into the eighth stage from Station des Rousses to Morzine-Avoriaz. He landed on his elbow and suffered a big knock; initially things didn’t seem too bad, but over time the pain became more apparent and that would eventually have repercussions on his race.
“(After the crash), I got back on my BMC and the peloton was really splitting apart. The first thing was to get back to the peloton and continue in the race as usual,” he said, looking back at that day six months ago. “I went to the doctor to see why my arm was hurting so much. When he first looked at it, the doctor said everything was okay. So John (Lelangue) asked me what I wanted to do and I told him to stick to the plan and try and take the yellow jersey.”
Directeur sportif Lelangue admitted that he had doubts, both about Evans making it to the finish and also about remaining with the other contenders. “We didn’t know if he was going to be able to finish the stage. We thought there would be fireworks on the final climb to Morzine-Avoriaz, but fortunately there was nothing.”
As a result, Evans succeeded in his goal, grabbing the Maillot Jaune by the end of the stage. He had previously worn it in 2008 and taking it back again was a very rewarding feeling. It was also one that was tinged with other emotions, though, as he and the team realised that his stay in the tunic would most likely be affected by the injury.
“When I was diagnosed with a broken elbow the next day, I thought, ‘Well, that stands to reason why it’s hurting so much.’ I took the yellow jersey when I had a broken arm. So in my mind everything indicated that I could still ride well with a broken arm. The last thing I was going to do was stop the Tour de France when I had the yellow jersey. I had to continue on and keep racing.”
BMC Racing team doctor Max Testa gave his perspective, describing what went on behind the scenes in the immediate aftermath of the accident and then as the injury worsened.
“In the minutes after the crash, Cadel wasn’t complaining about his elbow. We gave him some painkillers and I didn’t think much of it,” he said. “But at the finish line, it was his elbow that was in the most pain. I told him we needed to do an X-ray, but he didn’t want to go that night. We went back to the hotel and iced it.
“The next morning, we went to a local doctor and saw that the elbow was broken. I thought his Tour was over. l told him that he had gotten the jersey and that’s the way cycling sometimes can be. But he said he wanted to give it a try. We talked about the various types of taping that night and gave him a painkiller in the morning. The kind of fracture he had was not easy to displace, so I was not too worried about that. We decided to take things day-by-day.”
Evans had a little luck in that the following day was the first rest day of the Tour, giving him a chance to get the injury assessed and providing him with a little extra time to try to recover. BMC Racing Team president Jim Ochowicz said that they told as few people as possible about the problem, trying to keep the news out of the media and thus not letting his rivals know that the race leader was weakened.
“Cadel knew there was a problem, but it wasn’t one he couldn’t overcome that day,” he said. “Obviously, he finished the stage and took the yellow jersey. We were thinking everything was going to be OK after that. But things changed overnight. The next morning, he felt the full extent of the injuries he received. He couldn’t even move his elbow. I went on the training ride with him and he turned around almost immediately to go back to the hotel.”
It was clear that he needed to be fully assessed, and so he was brought to a clinic by directeur sportif John Lelangue and Dr. Testa. They did what they could to keep things quiet. “We had a lot of media and spectators hovering around our hotel all day. You’re trying not to send a negative message out or draw any additional attention. We had a choice to make. We could tell the media he had a broken elbow or we could go to the start and not tell anybody – including the team – and let everyone race as if everything was normal. We chose the latter.
“We had the yellow jersey, so it was our responsibility to control the race that day. Had we announced Cadel’s actual injury, it would have alerted the rest of the peloton and we could have put ourselves at an additional disadvantage. Therefore, it could have been all hell breaking loose.”
Once the peloton was on the road towards Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, it became clear that Evans was in trouble. His elbow was giving him a lot of trouble and he couldn’t bend his arm properly. He was eventually distanced and reached the finish more than eight minutes behind the stage winner Sandy Casar (Française des Jeux).
GC rival Andy Schleck finished just two seconds behind Casar and took over the Maillot Jaune. Evans crossed the line in tears, yet his spirited defence of the yellow jersey plus his insistence on continuing on to Paris earned him plenty of praise. He might not have won the race, but he battled on with great courage and earned plenty of new fans in doing so.