Cadel Evans (PRL) 2nd – “Welcome to our beautiful sport...!”

“We had a plan to try and chase some time bonuses but the way the teams rode in the final there was no such luck. It was really quite fast in the finish and it was actually quite dangerous – even Tom Boonen admitted that he thought that he thought about the danger in the sprint and opted for safety instead. _ “It’s the second closest winning margin in the history of the Tour. That’s something I was already cursing about after the stage to Loudenvielle when I was 55 seconds behind Contador. Now I think people understand why I go for general classification and don’t really concern myself with stage wins. To claim the time trial stage in Albi along the way isn’t bad though even if I haven’t yet officially been declared the winner yet. If there was a time bonus for a time trial win, the advantage here today would have been just three seconds between first and second place. That would have been very frustrating… _ “I hear that everyone in Australia is going crazy for cycling. To them I say, welcome to our beautiful sport! Enjoy it. _ “It’s a good result and a podium is something I’ve been hoping for and training for but I’m still the same person. I’ll go home on Monday and take the dog for a walk but now, if I miss a training ride or two, I won’t be complaining about it like I would have done before.”