Evans faces yellow jersey race of truth

ALPE D'HUEZ, France, - After two near-misses in 2007 and 2008, Cadel Evans' recipe to become Australia's first Tour de France champion appears to be startlingly simple.

"Start as fast as possible, finish as fast as possible and hope it's fast enough," Evans said on Friday when asked his feelings on the penultimate stage time trial that will decide the 98th edition of the race on Saturday.

To reduce Evans' efforts, this year and all the other years he has battled for cycling's holy grail, to such a simple formula would fail to do justice to the determination shown by him and his BMC team on the race's 98th edition.