Tour De France, Stage 20: The Aussie Gets His Wings [Downhill From Here]: "
When last we checked in with the Tour, the race had become a bar fight. Many of the big-name riders were broken. Former champ Alberto Contador was mounting suicidal climbing attacks and punching fans. The French guy was throwing tantrums. It was as if the Tour had become an enormous raw nerve. Favorite Andy Schleck emerged from Stage 19 as the overall time leader. The only thing standing between Schleck and a cruise in yellow down the Champs-Élysées, Champagne flute in hand, was an individual time trial, a no-strategy, man-against-clock burner that happens to be the specialty of the one rider who could catch him. That would be Australian Cadel Evans, a two-time Tour runner-up, who'd clung like a barnacle near the top of the leaderboard. On the eve of the stage, Schleck remained optimistic: 'The yellow jersey gives you wings and I hope that is the case tomorrow.' Back in Australia, a country that has never produced a Tour de France champion, they cued up a midnight simulcast and started pounding Carltons. More »
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When last we checked in with the Tour, the race had become a bar fight. Many of the big-name riders were broken. Former champ Alberto Contador was mounting suicidal climbing attacks and punching fans. The French guy was throwing tantrums. It was as if the Tour had become an enormous raw nerve. Favorite Andy Schleck emerged from Stage 19 as the overall time leader. The only thing standing between Schleck and a cruise in yellow down the Champs-Élysées, Champagne flute in hand, was an individual time trial, a no-strategy, man-against-clock burner that happens to be the specialty of the one rider who could catch him. That would be Australian Cadel Evans, a two-time Tour runner-up, who'd clung like a barnacle near the top of the leaderboard. On the eve of the stage, Schleck remained optimistic: 'The yellow jersey gives you wings and I hope that is the case tomorrow.' Back in Australia, a country that has never produced a Tour de France champion, they cued up a midnight simulcast and started pounding Carltons. More »
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