Defending champion feels his rainbow jersey will go to a specialist in the Flemish races
Reining World champion Cadel Evans is looking forward to defending his rainbow jersey in Sunday’s race, but says that the course is more suited to a number of his rivals. The race will he held in Australia for the first ever time, which motivates him, but he names a shortlist of others who have a better chance than he does; the list includes a certain former teammate, whom everyone else is looking at.
“That motivates me,” the rider from the Northern Territory told Sporza, “but it’s a World Championship. I would always try to perform well, wherever the World Championships is being held.”
Although the race is in his home country, Evans doesn’t feel that the course suits him particularly well, and so he feels that a successful defence of his title is unlikely.
“No, I don’t think I’ll make the top five,” conceded the BMC Racing Team rider, perhaps indicating that the Australian team will be working for another leader.
After riding 85 mostly flat kilometres, the men’s race will cover 11 laps of a 15.9km circuit, each one tackling two short sharp climbs. It is the riders who excel at the spring races of northern Belgium that Evans sees as the favourites to take the race.
The first name he mentions is the same name as on the top of most people’s lists, including the bookmakers, that of Evans’ Belgian former Silence-Lotto teammate.
“It’s more for the specialists in the Flemish classics,” he said, “I’m thinking in the order of [Philippe] Gilbert, [Thor] Hushovd, and Fabian [Cancellara]. [Filippo] Pozzato and Gilbert are perhaps the best leaders of the strongest teams.”
While wearing the rainbow jersey this year Evans’ list of results is an impressive one. His seasons highlights include victory in la Flèche Wallonne, fifth in the Giro d’Italia, winning arguably the most epic stage of the Italian race for decades and swapping his rainbow for the red points jersey on the way; he also led the Tour de France for one day in the Alps.
Had he not suffered from illness midway through the Giro d’Italia, or broken his elbow in a crash during the Tour de France, those results might have been even better. The Australian dismisses the notion that he suffered from any kind of “curse of the rainbow jersey” though.
“Over my year as World champion I can say I had a good season,” said Evans, “The bad luck I had in the Giro and the Tour made the difference between a good and a very good season.”
His good season would be made even better with the successful defence of his title, or by helping a compatriot to win on home soil.