Cadel Evans and Alejandro Valverde would normally be happy to wait for the Pyrenees stages this weekend before launching part two of their expected fight for the Tour de France yellow jersey.
However, the outcome of Tuesday’s first real big test, a 29.5km time trial in Cholet that produced a surprise winner and shook up some of their fellow contenders, has given other ideas to Kim Kirchen.
Kirchen, who placed a respectable seventh place overall last year when Evans finished runner-up by just 23 seconds, started this year’s race declaring his intention to make life difficult for everyone.
PHOTO: AFP
And the confident Luxemburger proved true to his word with a superb performance in the race against the clock that has left him trailing new race leader Stefan Schumacher of Gerolsteiner by just 12 seconds.
The yellow jersey is now in sight for Kirchen, who, if his team manager Rolf Aldag is to be believed, will target today’s hilly sixth stage to initiate the next stage of his plan.
“We can now say that all the big favorites will consider Kim as a more credible favorite and I’m sure they’re not going to forget about him in the stage to Super-Besse,” Aldag said.
“Kim is not the big favorite for the yellow jersey, but we’ll be sticking to our focus of supporting him as much as we can,” he said. “Stage six is the next big goal for him, and we’ll see what we can deliver there.”
Beginning on tight, twisting roads, the 195km race from Aigurande to Super-Besse leads the peloton up into the strength-sapping hills near the Massif Central.
Breakaways are a certainty, but Kirchen and his Columbia team — among others — are unlikely to allow them too much freedom on a stage which is perfectly suited to his style of riding, and which could be key to any future ambitions.
Kirchen, along with Valverde, is considered a “puncher” who can do well on most hilly terrain. Their specialty is sprinting away from their rivals on the shorter climbs, especially those with steep gradients.
Today’s finish line is at the end of a manageable 11km ascent, whose last 1.5km is at a tough gradient of 10 percent — incentive enough for the Luxemburger.
Evans knows Kirchen well, having been “punched” into second place by him on the steep climb to the finish line of the Fleche Wallonne one-day classic earlier this spring.
But the experienced Australian, who has finished in the Tour’s top 10 three times in his past three participations, is also intelligent enough to know when to remain alert.
“In my mind, for the general classification this [time trial] has been the first appointment for the overall favorites,” the Australian said after a strong time trial performance which allowed him to take 1 minute, 7 seconds from Valverde.
“Like I say, so far so good. Let’s see in Super-Besse. That will be the next big showing for the GC favorites,” he said.
Evans showed Valverde he meant business on Tuesday with a fourth-place finish in the race against the clock, finishing 27 seconds behind Schumacher.
The 31-year-old Silence-Lotto rider is now fourth overall at 21 seconds behind the German, who will have to fight to hang on to the yellow jersey in the coming days.
While that battle beckons, another spanner could be thrown into the works by the objectives of Britain’s David Millar, whose top five finish on Tuesday has left him in third overall at 12 seconds behind Schumacher.
The big Scot, who seems to have found a second wind in his career with the newly-renamed (ex-Slipstream) Garmin team, is not aiming for victory in Paris.
But the lure of the yellow jersey, which he last wore after winning the prologue in 2000, has given him ideas too.
“Plan A was to try and get the yellow jersey here,” he said after missing out on victory to Schumacher on Tuesday. “So we’re going to have to resort to plan B now — rendezvous at Super-Besse.”
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