Every second counts in time trial

12:17pm Friday 25th July 2008

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While Carlos Sastre was blowing the Tour de France wide open on the legendary Alpe d’Huez, I was watching Carole Smillie overseeing the battle of the postcodes.

The Scots may be renowned for many things. Decent television isn’t one of them.

A rotund family from Arbroath in a battle of wits with an equally generously-proportioned group of Aberdonians. Sastre v Cadel Evans, it wasn’t.

So I missed the biggest pot-boiler of the three-week Tour, which looks to be heading right to the wire. Tomorrow is winner-takes-all in the time trial.

Thanks to Wednesday’s heroics, Spaniard Sastre has a lead of nearly 90 seconds on the pre-race favourite. But the Aussie is by far the best against the clock.

In the Tour’s first time trial, he was just over a minute quicker than his yellow-jersey rival. He will need to go even better this afternoon to wrest it back right at the death.

Evans comes across as a charmless interviewee on TV. Forget the chips on his shoulders, he seems to be carrying round whole potato fields.

He’s not the sort of guy you cheer on. So I won’t be.

But whatever the outcome, it feels like this year’s Tour has reinvented itself after the drug-related nightmares of the previous two years.

There have, of course, been some bad guys rooted out. Two-stage winner Riccardo Ricco was the biggest catch and his team Saunier Duval immediately fell on their sword and pulled out en bloc to spare further embarrassment.

Fingers crossed, though, it appears that the message may be seeping through that clean is good. Maybe, just maybe, this year will turn up a genuine winner who has not resorted to dirty tricks.