sagginwagin

Evans would have lost the same time on Alpe d'Huez if he had his entire squad with him on that final climb.
The fact is that Sastre was the strongest on the climb of Alpe d'Huez and this in spite of fetching bottles
and acting as super-domestique for Schleck earlier in the stage. Evans couldn't answer Sastre attack and should have chosen to climb at his own pace with the strategy that he would regain anytime lost in the time trial. The argument
frequently made that all the riders in Evans group were constantly attacking him is beside the point. If you base it on his conservative, analytical riding style he should have only marked the riders that were potentially a threat:
Any of the AG2R riders-NO
Menchov-MAYBE (Had blown up answering Sastre's 2nd attack on the final climb, had fought back but was at that time minutes behind in the GC)
Valverde-NO (too many minutes back in GC, Evans superior in ITT)
The Schlecks-NO (Andy was 8+ minutes back, Frank is terrible in the ITT)
Kohl-MAYBE (ITT was historically weak, but had displayed superior climbing to Evans, close to Evans in GC)
Vandevelde-NO (Equal to Evans in climbing and time trial but at that point minutes back in GC and not likely to make up that time by the summit)
Sanchez-NO (Way back in GC, ITT is weak)

He chose instead to continually alter his tempo whenever an attack took place,
either bridging to the attackers wheel or following the rest of the group in picking up the tempo. With the existence of radios and constant communication between team DS's and their riders I'm sure all this info and waying of the pro's and con's of chasing which riders was already determined
and being communicated to Evans. If he chose to chase every attack that took place that was a grande mistake on his part.

The point is that once Sastre attacked and showed the superior form he had by putting 2 minutes into the field and Evans all that could be done is wait for the ITT to decide the winner. Sastre proved that his form, as always, improves in the 3rd week of the Tour and rode the time trial of his life. Evans did not.

rufvelo

Exactly, which is the point I was trying to make earlier. Unfortunately like playing politics, if you whine about something long enough(in this case not having a strong team), people will actualy believe this is all there is to winning races. Sure there are very specific benefits to using your team, but as in McEwen's own words, maybe the strongest guy won. Lance would have reacted smarter on the climb, with or without teammates, McEwen has shown that he does not need a Milram or QuickStep train to win sprints(except for this new Cavendish phenom that's ruining everything ).