I really feel for Cadel Evans. Six kilometres into the first mountain stage and an innocuous crash fractures his elbow. He struggles on, collects the yellow jersey in Avoriaz but the following day on the Col de la Madeleine the injury’s too much and he has to surrender the race lead.
If it wasn’t for bad luck,
I wouldn’t have no luck at all
As I said the other day, you’ll find it harder to have a rider with more bad luck. Now I’m not sure if this is true but you can argue he’s seen bad luck rob him of the last three grand tours. The Vuelta went because of a late wheel change; a virus struck his chances in the Giro and now a broken elbow puts him out of contention in the Tour. Now before you leap to the comments section below, even on the best of form I’m not sure he could have won the Tour but the podium was certainly possible.
Above all, the greatest disappointment will be personal. Sylwester Szmyd put it well on his blog last night when he wrote about Evans saying “I know that for him, cycling means everything in his life”. It’s true, Evans puts in a lot of work and above all, personal commitment into his riding and he must wonder what he’s done to see so many moments of untimely bad luck.
Photo: cyclingnews.com
Well, Leif Hoste is known in Belgium to have had a lot more than his own fair share of bad luck. He never lost the tour de france because of it, but nevertheless he still lost his childhood dream… ie. winning the tour of flanders.
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Ronde Van Vlaanderen 2004: Leif Hoste ends second for the first time.
Parijs-Roubaix 2004: A Flemish flag gets stuck in Hoste's wheel just when he's about to attack from the leading group.
02/04/06: Sprint against boonen, again number two in the tour of Flanders.
09/04/06: Leif Hoste is disqualified after ignoring a red sign at a railroad crossing.
08/04/07: 3th time second place in Tour of Flanders.
01/04/08: Nasty fall in three days 'De Panne'
06/04/08: His legs packed because of the fall, he nevertheless participates in the tour of Flanders. Problems with his gear in the last kilometers cause him to end 19th place.
01/06/08: Instant clinic admission due to fall in tour of Belgium
05/07/08: First fall in the tour de France.
And that's not all. How about Flecha who, while in the leading group, falls in the simplest turn of the whole tour of flanders… and who tumbles over him? Leif Hoste.
Fascinating, thanks. I always knew Hoste was close but not that he'd had such bad luck.