Speaker: Welcome to the first Giro d'Italia Legends series coming to you from Wales actually.
Because we don't have a Giro d'Italia to watch this year, we thought it'd be a good idea
to highlight some of the legends of the race, those who have shown dedication, passion,
flair and talent to one of the hardest races in the calendar, and we're going to start
with Cadel Evans. [music]
First of all, let me give you some quick highlights. He was in the Maglia Rosa for just one day
in the 2002 Giro. He finished second twice in the 2007 and 2008 tour, and there was a
lot of controversy in the 2009 edition of the Vuelta, where photographers and media
blocked his team's cars, and official mechanics did a very slow wheel change. This probably
cost him about a minute, and he finished 1 minute, 32 seconds behind Valverde in the
finish in Madrid. During the 2009 Road World Championships,
Cadel performed a thrilling solo win, and who can forget that stage win of the Giro
in 2010 on the mud stream of the Strade Bianche. Cadel Evans is undoubtedly one of Australia's
most successful former pro cyclists, the one of three non-Europeans to ever win the Tour
de France. He was born in Northern Territory, Australia,
on the 14th of February, 1977, and grew up in Barunga. He wasn't the tallest or the fastest,
so sport wasn't very encouraging for him at school, but he was an avid skateboard enthusiast.
His first found passion for cycling was in mountain biking. He was very successful at
this at a young age, and he had many Australian national titles.
In 1995, he started a scholarship with the Australian Institute of Sport on the mountain
bike program, and one of the first tests showed he had the heart, the lungs and the legs to
be one of the greatest ever. He had the highest ever V02 max ever tested at the Australian
Institute of Sport, but it wasn't straightforward for him. He sacrificed a lot, leaving Australia
and moving to Europe, meaning learning a new language and leaving his friends and his family
behind. In 1998 and '99, he won the Mountain Bike
World Cup, and in late '99, he won the Tour of Tasmania. The great Phil Liggett said,
"This kid will win the tour one day," and wasn't he right.
[music] In 2001, he switched to being a full-time
road rider, where he worked his way through the ranks. He started off with the Saeco squad,
but after a year, moved to Mapei, where he started working with the performance coach,
Aldo Sassi. Aldo Sassi wasn't just a performance coach to Evans, he was also a mentor and helped
him transition from being a mountain biker to a road rider. After winning the tour in
2011, Evans dedicated his win to his late coach.
Something that made Cadel one of the greatest was that he was a perfectionist. He would
be interested in every single detail that could make him a better and faster rider.
He would approach his DS and mechanics after every race and go through every single detail.
He had a scientific approach to everything, and the exceptional understanding of his numbers
in training. His old coach, David Martens, even said he could lecture a university on
Sports Science. His first Giro and first Grand Tour in 2002
saw him take in the Maglia Rosa on stage 16 in the mountains, just before the queen stage
in the Dolomites. Unfortunately, on the last climb on stage 17, he cranked and lost nearly
14 minutes. Don't worry, we've all been there. I've cranked on many of the hills.
In the time, he was with Team Telekom, he suffered many crashes and broken collar bones
which affected his results greatly. Letting the team down was always the hardest part,
because after all, he was still putting the hard work in. In 2005, he decided to move
to Davitamon–Lotto team, and he stayed with them until 2005.
In 2010, Evans joined BMC Racing. During that year, the Giro started in Amsterdam. On stage
seven, it was a 222-kilometer stage on the Strade Bianche roads. That stage was actually
called the mud stage, and we saw a great battle between Cadel and Alexander Vinokourov. It
was Cadel who won the stage after resisting numerous attacks from Vinokourov in the final
10 kilometers. He did manage to finish fifth on GC, and he did win the points classification
that year too. In 2013, Cadel targeted the Giro and the Tour de France, focusing all
his training to those races. His season was off to a fairly good start with some early
season wins. The Giro that year featured a lot of cold and wet weather, and it earned
its reputation as one of the most grueling grand tours in recent memory. Evans was secure
in second place in the general classification, behind leader, Vincenzo Nibali.
Until the last mountain stage, which was hindered by a snowfall, but he still did manage to
finish on the last step of the podium in the general classification. A disappointing tour
for him in 2013 as he just didn't have the form, and finished in 39th position on GC.
Cadel announced that he was going to retire in February 2015. One of his last races was
actually the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, a race named after him, and one of really
big early season races for the pros. You know you've made it when you've got a race named
after you. Evans briefly came out of retirement in 2017 when he went and won at the Absa Cape
Epic with former teammate, George Hincapie. Cadel is still in great shape and can probably
come back to the world tour tomorrow. That's it for the first of our Giro legends.
I hope you enjoyed this insight into the career of Cadel Evans. We've got plenty more coming
up over the next few weeks. Stay tuned. [music]
[00:06:39] [END OF AUDIO]