The results of the Stage 20 Grenoble time trial have gone down in history. Cadel easily made up the time he needed and took the yellow jersey from Andy Schleck. The Tour de France’s GC result was decided at the end of Stage 20. And Cadel was the winner.
Cadel, being Cadel, didn’t start celebrating though. Not yet. The Tour hadn’t finished. He wouldn’t allow himself to celebrate until the following day, once he had safely crossed the finish line and was wearing the yellow jersey on the podium in Paris.
The next morning the riders flew from Grenoble to Paris. The flight was hardly relaxing, especially for Cadel who gave interviews the whole way. There was so much excitement in the air that it reminded Cadel of the last day of school. Everyone on board the plane was proud to have lasted the distance. For riders, staff and even the media, the race had been a monumental slog. Simply making it to Paris was a huge achievement.
The peloton departed from Créteil, a suburb of Paris. Race officials offered Cadel a custom-made yellow bike to ride this last stage. He turned it down. He just didn’t trust an untested bike to take him home. Plus he really wanted to ride the same bike he’d used all race. Cadel felt the bike deserved to carry him to the Champs-Élysées after bringing him so far.
Cadel started the stage in the front row of the peloton, right in the middle. In his vivid yellow outfit, he certainly stood out. As well as his yellow jersey, he wore a yellow helmet with yellow sunglasses to match.
With the GC result decided, Cadel and his team could ride at a relaxed pace. The only jersey up for grabs was the green one for the points classification. That wouldn’t be decided until the last furious kilometres on the ChampsÉlysées. Before then, Cadel had time to pose for photos with his teammates and even the Schleck brothers. Andy would finish second and Fränk third, the first time the brothers had ever shared the Tour podium. Yellow motor scooters rode alongside Cadel, their riders carrying signs that read ‘Félicitations Cadel!’ (Congratulations Cadel!) One by one the other teams rode up and offered their congratulations. Cadel even enjoyed a drink of champagne from a plastic cup as he rode along.
The peloton disappeared into a tunnel. At the other side, the riders turned a corner and raced onto the ChampsÉlysées. It is Tour tradition for the yellow jersey team to lead the peloton onto the Champs-Élysées. BMC took its position at the front. Right in the middle was Cadel, a splash of yellow among BMC’s red-and-black jerseys.
The French capital’s most famous street was lined with trees clipped into cylinders. Banners fluttered from every pole. Way in the distance was the Arc de Triomphe, the landmark that signalled the end of the race. Behind the barriers on either side of the race route were TV cameras, vans, police and security guards. And of course, there was an enormous, excited crowd.
When the peloton appeared for the first time, the roar from the crowd was so massive Cadel thought it would blow him off his bike. He’d expected an amazing reception, but nothing could prepare him for what it felt like to ride along the Champs-Élysées as the Tour de France winner.
The peloton rode eight times around the ChampsÉlysées. In the final kilometres a bell rang. The sprinters took off to fight it out for the points jersey.
Cadel stayed safely in the peloton, making sure he didn’t crash. He’d thought about this moment for so long.
He’d dreamed about it. He’d sweated on it. Now finally it was happening—he wanted to savour every second of it.
Sprinter Mark Cavendish crossed the line first to take the stage as well as the green points jersey. Minutes later Cadel and the rest of his BMC riders crossed the finish line.
It was official! Cadel Evans had done it. Cadel and his teammates jumped off their bikes, cheering and hugging each other like football players.
Photographers leapt the barriers and circled the BMC riders, their cameras held high above their heads. They snapped photos of Cadel, destined for the front pages of newspapers all over the world.
Then it was time for Cadel to climb the podium and receive the final yellow jersey. Holding up his bunch of flowers and the Credit Lyonnais lion, he tried to take in everything that was happening in that moment. At 34 years old, he was standing on the winner’s podium, the oldest person to win the Tour de France in 88 years.
Cadel had heard a rumour that someone special would sing the Australian national anthem for him. Cadel thought it might be Chiara. It turned out to be Tina Arena, an Australian pop singer living in Paris. Tina had dreamed she sang on the Tour podium, so she contacted Tour officials and volunteered. Her offer was quickly snapped up.
Chiara made it to the podium anyway, of course. She had appeared out of the crowd, surprising Cadel with an Australian flag. Cadel climbed the podium, the first Australian ever to win the Tour de France, with the flag draped around his shoulders like a superhero’s cape.
Standing there in the middle of the podium, Cadel was alone with his thoughts for the first time since crossing the line. Emotion flooded through him. He couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact he had won.
It was a perfect day in Paris, clear skies and sunny. Against the backdrop of the Arc de Triomphe, Tina Arena began to sing. The huge crowd fell silent. On either side of Cadel, the Schleck brothers listened closely.
There were plenty of Australians there that day, holding flags and blow-up kangaroos. As the national anthem finished, nothing could stop a familiar, joyful cry ringing out. ‘Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi, Oi, Oi!’
Cadel had won the race for his team, for his family and for himself. But at that moment, he realised he’d done it for all Australians too.
When Tina Arena finished singing, she handed the microphone to Cadel. He gave a speech in French thanking BMC, cycling fans and the whole of Australia. Then he repeated the speech in English.
As he stepped off the podium, Cadel handed the Credit Lyonnais lion to Marcus Burghardt as a present for his daughter. ‘Bulldozer’ Burghardt was Cadel’s hardestworking domestique. Cadel’s victory would have been impossible without him.
With the podium ceremony over, life as a Tour winner began. First Cadel had to take a routine drug test. Immediately after that he began an exhausting afternoon of interviews and phone calls.
It was evening when Cadel finally got back to his hotel. Waiting in the foyer was his old friend and mentor Martin Whiteley. Cadel, Chiara and Whiteley celebrated. It was a chance to reflect on everything that had happened since Cadel and Whiteley first met. Back then Cadel was a gangly teenager with an odd name on a bike with knobbly tyres. Now he had conquered pro cycling’s greatest race.
Later that night Cadel and Chiara joined the BMC team for a party at the Paris nightclub Le 1515. Cadel was so swept up in the celebrations that he forgot to eat. As the night wore on he realised he was starving. So Cadel and the team went back to the hotel and ordered pizzas. They stayed up until five in the morning, chatting and gobbling pizza, an extraordinary thing for a bunch of professional athletes to do. Then again, it had been an extraordinary day.
The madness continued the next morning. Cadel’s Australian agent, Jason Bakker, was swamped with requests for interviews and appearances. His phone rang so much, Bakker had to recharge it four times in a single day.
Cadel needed some time to figure out what to do next. So he stuffed his yellow jersey into his suitcase, checked out of his hotel and went home to Stabio.
On the way home, Cadel made a stop to visit Aldo Sassi’s family. After his Stage 20 yellow jersey win, Cadel had become very emotional when a reporter asked him about his coach Aldo Sassi. It upset Cadel to think Sassi had missed his greatest victory by just a few months. Sassi always believed in Cadel and told him he could win the Tour. Cadel struggled to put into words for the reporter just how much Sassi’s support meant to him.
As well as visiting Sassi’s family, Cadel also went to Sassi’s grave. There he left the bouquet of flowers he’d been given on the Paris podium the day before. Cadel knew his coach would have been incredibly proud of him.
When he arrived back in Stabio, Cadel’s schedule quickly filled up with media engagements. He even found himself flying by helicopter to give interviews.
Amid all the hype, Cadel was already thinking about his next race. A new US event called the Pro Cycling Challenge was scheduled for the end of August in Colorado. It would be at high altitude, which Cadel knew usually called for special training camps.
As an American-based team, the Pro Challenge was a big race for BMC. But the team also understood it was important for Cadel to celebrate his win back home in Australia. So although a trip home would compromise his training, Cadel and the BMC management agreed on a short visit.
In Cadel’s home state of Victoria, the government arranged a victory parade. Cadel confessed to being a little worried no-one would turn up. But he is a very Australian hero, a guy who’d battled for years to achieve what people kept telling him was an impossible dream. From the moment Cadel landed at Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport, he saw his win had genuinely thrilled Australians.
The route from the airport was lined with huge placards congratulating him. In Barwon Heads, the locals wanted to name a bridge after him. And around 30,000 people turned out for Cadel’s victory parade in Melbourne’s Federation Square—more people than came to see American superstar Oprah Winfrey when she visited Melbourne. Millions more watched the parade on television, which was broadcast live on every network.
Cadel reacted in his usual modest, humble way. He told the media that he was just a guy who rode a bike. He described how honoured he felt to know that his win meant so much to Australians. He added that just being home was a special feeling. Cadel travels ten months of the year. At home he could enjoy simple things, like hugging his mum whenever he wanted.
Even on the victory trip, training was a huge priority for Cadel. He stayed in the penthouse at Crown Casino. He aimed to train on rollers for an hour a day in the huge suite. Most days he was just too busy.
Cadel and Chiara did find time for a week’s holiday on Queenland’s Hamilton Island before heading back to Europe. The weeks after the Tour were exciting, but they both desperately needed time out too.
Cadel knew his teammates would feel the same. He had earned nearly $600,000 in prize money from the Tour win. Cadel used some of it to give each BMC team member and his family a business class trip anywhere in the world. The riders just had to promise to be fit to race in 2012—and to send Cadel a postcard.
Money was not the only thing Cadel earned from the Tour de France. Cycling fan and businessman Gerry Ryan promised Cadel a Cadillac convertible if he won. Days before Cadel was scheduled to go back to Europe, the car arrived at his Barwon Heads house. Cadel is a car nut and already owned a white 1966 Mustang coupe. Chiara screamed with excitement when the Cadillac arrived to join the collection. It was an impressive sight, all tailfins and gleaming chrome. And it was yellow.
When Cadel finally did go back to Europe, he jumped back into training. He considered racing the Vuelta a España but decided he didn’t have the energy he needed for a decent shot at winning.
So Cadel’s next race was the US Pro Challenge. Although his preparation was less than ideal because of the Australia trip, Cadel placed seventh. BMC performed well as a team, with George Hincapie winning a stage.
Andy Schleck was also racing, which gave Cadel a chance for a friendly catch-up with his rival. It was a relaxed way to end the most successful season of Cadel’s career.
Cadel’s Road Bike Race Highlights, 2011
1st Stage 6, Tirreno–Adriatico, Macerata, Italy
1st General Classification, Tirreno–Adriatico, Italy
2nd Stage 2, Tour de Romandie, Romont, Switzerland
1st General Classification, Tour de Romandie, Switzerland
2nd General Classification, Critérium du Dauphiné, France
1st Stage 4, Mûr-de-Bretagne, Tour de France, France
1st General Classification, Tour de France, France
4th Points Classification, Tour de France, France
4th King of the Mountain, Tour de France, France