GRENOBLE, July 23, 2011 (AFP) - Luxembourg's Andy Schleck paid tribute to Tour de France rival Cadel Evans as the Australian took the coveted yellow jersey after the penultimate stage time trial on Saturday.
"Cadel did the time trial of his life, and he deserves to win the Tour," said Schleck, who had taken the race lead only 24 hours ago from Frenchman Thomas Voeckler.
Schleck went into the 42.5 km race against the clock with a 57 second cushion on Evans and confident he could take the storied tunic all the way to Paris Sunday.
But against one of the best time trialists in the business, Schleck's campaign fell apart by the halfway point of the hilly, technical circuit which Evans had raced last month during the Criterium du Dauphine and had spent many hours on choosing material and the best trajectories.
The Australian reduced his deficit by 36 seconds after just 15 km and by the finish, only missed the stage victory when he finished 7 seconds behind Tony Martin of Germany.
Andy Schleck, a specialist climber who said three weeks ago he had concentrated "on my strengths, not my weaknesses", finished 17th at 2:38 behind Martin and 2:31 behind Evans.
Evans now has a lead of 1:34 over Schleck ahead of Sunday's final stage, a 95 km run from Creteil to Paris which the overall contenders traditionally do not dispute.
Schleck had put himself firmly in contention for overall victory when he won the 18th stage to the legendary Galibier mountain pass on Thursday.
Despite putting Evans briefly into trouble on the final climbing day to Alpe d'Huez Friday, the Australian ultimately lost no more time to the Luxemburger on the 19th stage.
Schleck says his time trial performance was the best he could muster.
"I was really focused on this time trial," said Schleck, whose brother Frank dropped one place to third overall at 2:30 behind Evans after he finished 2:24 behind Evans.
"I realized the full importance of it. We did the reconnaissance this morning and remained committed to leaving everything out on the course.
"We know we did everything we could do in the mountains and today. Both Frank and I probably did the best time trials we have ever done, but it wasn’t good enough. We don’t have any regrets in this perspective."
Now set to claim runner-up place for the third consecutive year having finished second to Spain's Alberto Contador in 2009 and 2010, Schleck said they had no regrets.
"It's disappointing in a way, but if you look at the size and importance of the Tour, it's a real honor to be second especially when your brother is one step down," said Schleck.
Source: http://www.bicycling.com/tour-de-france/tour-features/andy-schleck-says-evans-deserves-tour-victory
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