Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) almost single-handedly pulled the group of race favourites to the top of the Col du Galibier, in pursuit of eventual stage winner Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek). The Australian positioned himself on the front of the thinning group with more than 10km still to climb and never looked back at the ever-shrinking number of riders that clung to his back wheel.
Evans managed to drop a number of big names, including race favourite Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank), and managed to halve Schleck’s lead from more than four minutes to just over two. One of the riders that managed to stay with the former World champion was race leader Thomas Voeckler (Europcar), who still had teammate Pierre Rolland, but he seemed unwilling, or unable, to try to fight for his lead.
"When Voeckler and his team stopped riding and he has the yellow [jersey], it was a bit bizarre and strange," said Evans. "They've been riding a lot all week, but he had a teammate in the end, too.
“They sort of looked at me to do the work, but I was alone, too. I'm never happy to lose places on GC."
Despite his best efforts, Evans slipped from second to fourth as both Schleck brothers jumped over him in the standings. Andy is now just 15 seconds behind Voeckler, while Fränk is at 1’08”; Evans managed to take a few seconds out of Voeckler at the finish, and now trails by just 1’12”.
Calling upon the support of teammates
While Andy Schleck called upon the services of teammates Joost Posthuma and Maxime Monfort in his long solo effort, Evans put Brent Bookwalter in the break and the American was able to lend him some support as he was reeled in by the peloton.
"I gave everything I had today to help once Cadel's group got up to me," said Bookwalter. "I was already on empty at that point, but I did what I could."
With no one seemingly able to chase Schleck as he was heading for his stage victory, he could have ridden into a comfortable position in the yellow jersey had Evans not acted when he did.
"It could have been a lot worse if he had not taken the initiative," said BMC Racing’s general manager Jim Ochowicz. "Contador was dropped, [Samuel] Sanchez was dropped. You don't get dropped if you're not using most everything that you've got.
“This race isn't over and we're still in contention and tomorrow is another day,” he added. “It's going to be hard tomorrow. But we're going to be as competitive as we have been every day thus far in the race."
Stage nineteen to Alpe d’Huez looks to be just as tough, with Evans having burned a lot of matches in today’s stage. Evans is a far superior time triallist that the riders around him though and, with the 42.5km Grenoble test on Saturday, he is still well placed to become the first ever Australian winner of the Tour.