Australian Scott Sunderland has spent three weeks trying to make sure compatriot Cadel Evans loses the Tour de France.
Now Sunderland, a co-team manager with CSC, is preparing for the distinct possibility that Evans will upset his race leader Carlos Sastre in the all-important stage time trial
overnight.
Sastre goes into the 53km race against the clock with a 1minute 34second advantage on Silence-Lotto leader Evans, and with the yellow jersey on his back. But despite racing his 17th Grand Tour, the 33-year-old Spaniard knows Evans, thanks to his formidable time trialing, is the big favourite to triumph in Paris.
Sunderland is praying Sastre punches above his weight to hand CSC their first Tour de France.
"The time trial course is not perfect for Carlos, but he's in good shape, he has the yellow jersey and a lot of motivation."
If Sastre is beaten, CSC will perhaps look back at their tactics in the Alps where, despite dominating Evans' Silence team, they failed to shake him until the summit of Alpe d'Huez.
After seeing Frank Schleck, of CSC, take the overall lead on the first of three alpine stages, leaving Evans at just 8s behind, the Danish team had trouble dropping the Australian.
Schleck failed to take any further time on the second day in the Alps. Since Sastre is stronger in the time trial than Schleck, it was up to the Spaniard to take over from the Luxembourg champion and launch their bid to keep the yellow jersey.
CSC were rightly delighted with Sastre's performance but Evans is now widely expected to overhaul his 1m 34s deficit and become the first Australian winner of the race.
Sunderland believes that Evans can now thank a few teams whose respective ambitions on the way up the 13.8km climb to Alpe d'Huez allowed him to limit his losses.
