KEY POINTS:
Denis Menchov has not won a stage this year and is not the best climber in the bunch or the most gifted time-trial specialist, yet Tour de France leader Cadel Evans regards the Russian as his most dangerous rival.
Menchov, a two-times Vuelta winner and fifth in the
overall standings, is 57s behind Australian Evans.
"It will be hard to take some time back from Evans," said his Rabobank team chief Erik Dekker.
"But there will be a very hard stage on Sunday [tonight NZT], then a day off and another hard ride to l'Alpe d'Huez. Denis will wait for Cadel to have a bad moment to attack," he added.
Menchov and Evans are very close in terms of consistency, and both are aware of it. "[Luxembourg's] Franck Schleck has class and [Spain's] Carlos Sastre is always better in the third week but Menchov is the most consistent of my rivals," said Evans.
Said Dekker: "Evans and Denis have a lot in common. The only difference I can see is one speaks English and the other Russian."
Each has won a stage in previous Tours. Evans won the big time trial of the 2007 edition in Albi, after Kazakh Alexander Vinokourov was disqualified for doping. Menchov won a mountain stage in Val d'Aran in 2006. In the Pyrenees this year, when Italy's Riccardo Ricco and his Saunier Duval team stole the show before being kicked out of the Tour for doping, the two stuck together on the climbs.
One factor that could favour Menchov was his team, Dekker said. "We have one of the very best teams in the mountains. We have two riders in the top 20 and six in the top 60."
Meanwhile Britain's Mark Cavendish took his fourth win on the Tour de France's 13th stage, a 182km ride from Narbonne to Nimes, as the race enjoyed a scandal-free day.
Ricco tested positive for the blood-booster EPO and his Saunier Duval team withdrew on Thursday. Before that, Spaniards Manuel Beltran and Moises Duenas Nevado also tested positive for erythropoietin.
Briton Cavendish of Team Columbia became the first man to win four stages in the same Tour since fellow sprinter Italian Alessandro Petacchi in 2003.
Cavendish easily beat veteran Australian Robbie McEwen of the Silence-Lotto team and France's Romain Feillu of Agritubel.
