So, er, how much for Serge?

28 July 2008 | 16:42 - Saddle Sores - Jesse Fink

Now that the Tour de France is over and my celebrity is going through the roof (cough), I think I may put in a call to Serge Borlée, Cadel Evans's hulking bodyguard. I'm gonna be needing some protection from the cycling groupies. They're a persistent mob.

Comments (6) | Your thoughts?

Borlée's huge right palm barely left the Australian's shoulder for all of the three-week race and there was tut-tutting in some quarters that the pair looked a little too close.

But there was a good reason for that, as Borlée told the Sydney Morning Herald's Rupert Guinness: "Some people want[ed] to kill [Cadel]. We really had a lot of problems and that is why he needed a person close to him."

Close indeed. There are some nuts in France, most of them drunk and stupid and draped in a flag, but as Borlée's own cuts and bruises can attest from this 2004 video when he was working for Lance Armstrong, the French police are dangerous enough.

 

Borlée also told Guinness that Evans "could be more aggressive. He is too nice."

Nice is a word that many people would probably have ascribed to Evans before this year's race, but as I wrote last week the nuggety Aussie is clearly learning quickly under Borlée's wing.

One wag I spoke to in my local café this morning said he felt Evans was promoting an image of Australia of which we shouldn't be proud.

The ugly Australian.

I think that's being a bit harsh.

Until any of us know what it takes to be Cadel Evans, to be favourite for the world's greatest road race, to ride over 3000km trying to outfox 200 other supremely gifted riders and summoning strength when there is none left to give, we should reserve judgment on some of his actions this past few weeks.

To finish second in the Tour de France is an extraordinary achievement. To finish second two years in a row is enough to happily retire on. But I'm sure Evans will bounce back from this disappointment better than ever for next year's race and win the damn thing once and for all.

Who knows? In the coming weeks and months we might even have a repeat of the scandal that befell Floyd Landis in 2007 and see Sastre's title stripped from him, which would hand Evans the yellow jersey. Riders are dropping like flies from positive drug tests - Credit Agricole's Dmitriy Fofonov is the latest - and expect more big names to follow.

Sastre says he's clean, but haven't we heard that before? It's a sad indictment of the sport of cycling that great victories like this are marred by suspicion and cynicism. I hope for Sastre's and cycling's sake that he can come back next year and prove it was untainted.

So where to now for Evans?

In my opinion, Evans's undoing wasn't the time trial on Saturday, where he only managed to get back half a minute on Sastre. It was giving him over two minutes' lead after the ride up the Alpe d'Huez.

Evans was left for dead to duke it out with the vastly superior CSC team in the Alps and came up wanting.

Evans's team, Silence-Lotto, are already talking about strengthening their team with specialist mountain doméstiques for next year's race, which is a start.

"Maybe we need to reinforce with more climbers who can handle climbs like Col du Tourmalet and Alpe d'Huez," directeur-sportif Henrik Redant told Cycling News.

"[Yaroslav] Popovych was not on his best form, [Draio] Cioni and [Christophe] Brandt got sick. Popovych had a few good days, but all the rest he was average."

Maybe so, but at the end of the day it still comes down to the individual.

Fortunately for Evans, and Australia, he has the strength of character to come back fitter, stronger and more resolved than ever to earn the maillot jaune the hard way - clean.

We'll be with him, all the way. See you next year.