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Cadel Evans at the Tour de France, 21 July 2006. | |
Personal information | |
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Full name | Cadel Evans |
Nickname | Cuddles[1] |
Date of birth | 14 February 1977 |
Country | ![]() |
Height | 1.74 m (5 ft 9 in) |
Weight | 64 kg (140 lb/10.1 st) |
Team information | |
Current team | Silence-Lotto |
Discipline | Road |
Role | Rider |
Rider type | All rounder |
Amateur team(s) | |
1994–1997 | Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) |
Professional team(s) | |
2001 2002 2003–2004 2005– |
Volvo-Cannondale (MTB) Saeco Mapei Team Telekom Davitamon-Lotto/Predictor-Lotto/Silence-Lotto |
Major wins | |
UCI ProTour (2007) Tour de Romandie (2006) Tour de France - 1 stage (2007) |
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Infobox last updated on: | |
20 October 2007 |
Cadel Evans (born Katherine, Northern Territory 14 February 1977) is an Australian professional racing cyclist. In 2007, Evans became first Australian to win the UCI ProTour. He has the highest Tour de France finishes for an Australian, coming second in 2007 and 2008. Before turning to road cycling in 2001, Evans was a champion mountain biker, riding for the Volvo-Cannondale MTB team, winning the World Cup in 1998 and 1999 and placing seventh in the men's cross-country mountain bike race at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. He is married to Chiara Evans, an Italian pianist.
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Evans started his international career as a member of the Australian Institute of Sport MTB team, under head coach, Heiko Salzwedel and MTB coach Damien Grundy. He won silver medals at the 1997 and 1999 under-23 world championships and bronze medals at the 1995 junior world road time trial championship and junior world mountain bike championship.
He has been ridden for Saeco (2001), Mapei (2002), Team Columbia (then named Team Telekom) (2003–2004). For 2005 he joined Davitamon-Lotto and came eighth in his first Tour de France, first Australian in the top ten since Phil Anderson.
Evans bettered his performance in 2006, finishing fourth after the disqualification of Floyd Landis. He won the Tour de Romandie, beating the Spaniards Alberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde on the last stage, a 20km time trial around Lausanne.
In the 2007 Tour de France, Evans finished runner-up to Contador. He won the stage 13 time trial and came second in the stage 19 time trial. Evans finished fourth in the 2007 Vuelta a Espana. He came fifth in the world championship and sixth in the final UCI ProTour race, the Giro di Lombardia, securing the 2007 UCI ProTour with 247 points ahead of Davide Rebellin and Alberto Contador.
Other successes include a stage win in the Tour of Austria in 2001, overall win of the Tour of Austria 2004, fifth in the Tour of Germany in 2005, a stage win of the Tour Down Under in 2002, winning the mountains classification in the Tour Down Under in 2006, 14th in the 2002 Giro d'Italia (he wore the leader's jersey, Maglia Rosa for one day), and Commonwealth Games time trial champion in 2002. In 2006 and 2007 he was named Australian Cyclist of the Year.
Evans was a favorites to win the 2008 Tour de France because Contador was not allowed to participate as his team Astana were not invited. Evans held the yellow jersey from stages 10 to 14. However, during Alpe d'Huez on stage 17, Carlos Sastre of Team CSC took 2 minute 15 seconds from Evans. By the penultimate stage time trial, Evans needed to ride 1 minute 34 seconds faster than Sastre. He beat Sastre and jumped to second place but remained 58 seconds behind at the end of the Tour.
After recovering from a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament,[2] Evans contested the 245km mens road race at the Beijing Olympics, finishing 15th, 22 seconds behind Samuel Sánchez.[3] He placed fifth in the road time trial four days later.
In 2008, Evans wore a cycling undershirt with the Flag of Tibet and supported freedom for Tibet.[4][5] He said:
Trying to bring awareness of the Tibet movement is something someone in my position can do. I just feel really sorry for them. They don't harm anyone and they are getting their culture taken away from them. I don't want to see a repeat of what happened to Aboriginal culture [in Australia] happen to another culture.
Evans is known for confrontation with media and fans.[6][7] He used a bodyguard at the 2008 Tour de France; it has been suggested that this sparked the tensions, as the more force was used to keep the media away from Evans, the more the attention became.[7][8] Evans lost his temper and batted away the hand of a journalist from his shoulder, shouted "Stand on my dog and I'll cut your head off" at a bystander who collided with his dog,[8] and headbutted a television camera.[9] The actions earned him the nickname "Cuddles" from ProCycling's features editor, Daniel Friebe,[1] who coined other nicknames in the peloton.[10]
Sporting positions | ||
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Preceded by Alejandro Valverde |
UCI ProTour Champion 2007 |
Succeeded by Alejandro Valverde |
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Persondata | |
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NAME | Evans, Cadel |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
SHORT DESCRIPTION | Road bicycle racer |
DATE OF BIRTH | 1977-02-14 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia |
DATE OF DEATH | |
PLACE OF DEATH |