First off Contador chose to go for the Giro/Tour double. And though he won the Giro he had little left for the Tour and was never really able to be a factor in the race. Second Andy and his brother Frank left their team after last season and started a brand new team. As great as the Schleck's are it's really hard to create a brand new team and show up and win the Tour. This left a shot for Evans and he came in so under the radar this year that it seems even his main rivals forgot that he's finished second here before.
The race was essentially lost by the Schlecks in the Pyrenees. Cadel Evans is a great time trialist and this Tour had a very difficult time trial on the second to last stage. That meant that the Schleck brothers had to put time into Evans at every mountain pass. They couldn't do it at all in the Pyrenees and manage only a slight hit in the Alps. With Evans behind by only 58 seconds going into the time trial it was almost a foregone conclusion that he would win the Yellow jersey and in fact he had taken back all the time he needed by the first time check.
The Schlecks did manage to finish 2nd and 3rd, but in many ways this just points more to their failure. That means they essentially had a two on one situation in the mountains against Evans and could not gain any time on him. To most observers of the race the Schlecks came across as way too timid. If you are a climber and you want to beat a time trial specialist you have to break them, and with two guys you should be able to attack, attack, attack until one of you gets away.
I don't mean to take away from Evans's win. In many ways he wasn't just the most consistent, but the most aggressive and so he deserves all the credit in the world, but I still find it difficult to believe he won.
This seems like the year the Tigers beat the Padres.
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