Mr. Rogers’ Tour – Evans remains a star … on YouTube
- By Neal Rogers
- Published Jul. 30, 2008
- Updated Jul. 30, 2008 at 3:20 PM EDT
A video clip showing Australian Cadel Evans snap at a broadcast journalist following the Tour de France’s stage 10 finish at Hautacam has become a minor YouTube sensation, with the clip garnering near 100,000 views and hundreds of comments by race’s end.
After taking the yellow jersey, Evans was walked through customary post-stage TV interviews when a microphone windscreen tapped his injured left shoulder, wounded in his race threatening stage 9 crash.
Evans swiped the mike away, only to be tapped on the shoulder by a reporter a moment later as he walked away. Evans exploded, smacking the reporter’s hand while shrieking, “Don’t touch me!” A menacing scowl followed before Evans moved on to the next interview. Through it all, he clutched a prized Credit Lyonnais stuffed lion, available only to race leaders.
As the pressure of winning one of the world’s largest sporting events mounted, Evans grew less accessible to the media, while more bizarre YouTube clips trickled in.
In one video, Evans is shown head butting a cameraman who stood in his way.
In another, he warned a bystander not to step on his small dog Molly, which began accompanying him to post-race doping controls.
“Don’t step on my dog,” Evans said, “or I’ll cut your head off.”
The pressure to win the Tour came to a head on stage 20 time trial, where Evans’ Tour was lost with a sub-par performance. Afterwards, though disappointed, Evans could finally relax.
Standing on the Champs Elysees in Paris, a glass of champagne in hand,
a relieved Evans talked to VeloNews.TV about his apparent love/hate relationship with the media.
“I have a lot of respect for respect,” Evans said. “There are people who have respected me, and my time and fatigue, and those people I have time for. Other people want all your time when you don’t have time or energy, and then they don’t give you the time of day when you do have time or energy.
It’s a two-way thing. There are guys in the media who have always followed me, though thick and thin, guys who have always supported me. I’ve always got time for them, because to me they are good people. And good people I always have time for.”
Sort of a cycling version of the infamous Zapruder film, the “Don’t Touch Me!” clip has been relentlessly examined and analyzed by the racing community. Was the journalist overstepping his bounds? Did Evans simply lose his cool? Or was his reaction warranted?
Here are several pivotal moments.
Photo Gallery
FILED UNDER: Road / Tour de France TAGS: Tour de France
Neal Rogers
An interest in all things rock 'n' roll led Neal into music journalism while attending UC Santa Cruz. After several post-grad years spent waiting tables, surfing and mountain biking, Neal moved to San Francisco, working stints as a bike messenger and at a software start-up. He moved to Colorado in 2001, taking an editorial internship at VeloNews. He never left, and is now Velo's editor in chief. When not traveling the world covering races, Neal can be found riding his bike, skiing, cooking, or attending a concert. Follow him on Twitter at @nealrogers.