Into the Fire: With Cadel Evans Gone from Silene-Lotto, Jurgen Van den Broeck to Shoulder 2010 Tour de France Leadership

In this past year's Tour de France, Cadel Evans sank far down the overall classification, completely off form and without the legs to follow the other leaders at the Tour de France. Meanwhile, his teammate Jurgen Van den Broeck was having the ride of his life, at the front of the peloton on some of the toughest stages and fighting for the top 20 in the overall GC battle.

By the time the Tour arrived in Paris, Van den Broeck had established himself as the best placed rider for Silence-Lotto, and rumors began to swirl regarding who would lead the Lotto team in the 2010 Tour. Evans meanwhile took his poor performance in France in stride, rebuilding his confidence in time to take a podium spot at the Vuelta a Espana and of course top honors at the road world championships in Mendrisio in late September.

Cadel Evans, sensing that he may be in for another season without support at Silence-Lotto, jumped ship a few weeks ago from Silence-Lotto, signing with the revamped BMC squad. The Australian got sick of riding without help in the toughest stages of the Tour, and in moving to BMC he'll be afforded a chance to start fresh with a new team.

For Van den Broeck meanwhile, the 2010 cycling season will be one full of more pressure than any other season previously for the 26 year old. Now the sole GC hope on the Belgian squad, Van den Broeck will have to shoulder the entire GC load for Lotto next year. Whether he'll be able to deal with the pressure and expectations as the team leader is still uncertain.

Riding as a relatively unknown rider in a grand tour is a very different experience than riding as a top favorite. Van den Broeck was able to enjoy very little media attention throughout the first two weeks of the Tour last year, as the press instead focused on Evans and his terrible performance up to that point. Van den Broeck was able to ride is own race without expectations, and the Belgian rode a strong race, creating intrigue into his chances as a GC threat for future grand tours.

Ready or not, 2010 will see Jurgen Van den Broeck having to shoulder the full load for the Silence-Lotto team at next year's Tour de France. A Belgian on a Belgian team is pressure enough, but adding the pressure of having to ride high on the GC at the Tour de France could prove too much for Van den Broeck. If he does succeed in riding a good race for Lotto next year though, Van den Broeck will establish himself as a new Belgian hero, and the first serious Belgian stage race threat since the great Eddy Merckx.