Cadel Evans has hung his competition bike up in the garage for the final time, bringing to an end one of the gutsiest and most glorious Australian sporting careers ever. The 37-year-old, who in 2011 won cycling’s biggest prize, the Tour de France, and was crowned UCI Road World Champion in 2009, has had his whole career chronicled by the press, be it the heartbreaking lows or ecstatic highs. To honour the close of his stellar career, Inside Sport staffer James Smith collected a batch of iconic images of Evans and asked him to share his thoughts and emotions on each. As he said at the end of his story-telling session with us: “There’s a lot of drama behind each one of those photos, I can tell you. I could probably write a book on each one of the images, at least.” Over to you, Cadel.

DARK AGES

1994: UNDER 19S CROSS COUNTRY WORLD TITLES, USA

“This is September in Vail, Colorado. It was my first junior world championships; I finished second to the Frenchman Miguel Martinez, who years later won gold at the Olympics. It was my first international race and the second time my name had come into the world of international cycling. I’d competed earlier that year in a round of the elite men’s World Cup in Cairns. I was fifth there. Even back then I was very hungry, very determined to do everything I could to do as well as I could. I have a lot more experience now; I’m certainly a lot better-prepared in terms of resources and experience and knowledge of the sport. I’d only been racing for about two or three years at this point, so I was still quite new to it all.”

Photo by Getty Images.

HOME CROWD

2000: OLYMPIC GAMES’ MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY, FAIRFIELD CITY FARM, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

“I went into this race as quite a favourite. In this photo, Miguel Martinez is right behind me. He won the gold that year. The Olympics was very interesting to me personally because I was the watched rider: not only by the crowd and by the wider Australian public, but within the race as well because I’d had a few good years leading up. That year, though, was a mixed one for me; I’d had a couple of injuries, especially a hamstring leading into the Olympics. That upset my concentration a fair bit because it was the first time I’d had to deal with injuries in my sporting career. Quite a few people went exceptionally fast on that day, I remember. A lot of people went there because maybe they couldn’t get in to watch the other more popular sports. There were obviously some people there who had never seen a mountain bike event before. I was concentrating on getting a good result, probably concentrating too much to actually enjoy the day, which was a bit unfortunate. I went there and gave it everything I had and I think I finished seventh.”

Photo by Getty Images.

HITTING THE ROAD

2002: COMMONWEALTH GAMES MEN’S INDIVIDUAL TIME TRIAL ROAD FINAL, RIVINGTON, ENGLAND

“The [Getty Images] photo description says ‘Cadel cruises to victory’ ... I don’t know whether I cruised. It was my first year racing full-time on the road. I’d just come off the Giro d’Italia and my first grand tour. But I was running pretty well, if I may say so myself. This was one of my better time trials – probably still to this day – in terms of getting everything right on the road, then onto the results sheet. It was a good race; certainly an enjoyable one, being a Commonwealth Games gold medal. Actually, I was at my grandmother’s house recently and she still has the medal hanging on her wall. The course there was a really nice one; it was pretty hilly but not ridiculously hard. The weather was beautiful throughout the week. Australia was one-two-three in the Time Trial and one-two-three in the Men’s Road Race as well – Stuart O’Grady, myself and Baden Cooke.”

Photo by Getty Images.

IT TAKES GUTS

2006: UCI WORLD TOUR, TOUR DE ROMANDIE, FINAL STAGE, LAUSANNE TO LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND

“In cycling we have the World Tour, which is known as the top level of races ... This was my first world-level victory in professional cycling. By this time I’d won a couple of stage races and a couple of time trials as well. I’d actually won a time trial on this particular climb before, so I knew the climb quite well, but I was still pretty focussed. When everything comes together like it did that day, it just drives you to keep going faster and faster and faster ... It’s great. The faster you go, the more confident and stronger you seem to get. It’s a pretty good mindset to be in. I’d had two pretty average years previously and that was my first chance – my first big result – to show the people who had faith in me what sort of bike rider I was.”

Photo by Getty Images.

WORLD CHAMPION

2009: UCI ROAD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS, MENDRISIO, SWITZERLAND

“Funnily enough, in this photo I’m riding up a climb which is about six kilometres from my house where I’m based in Europe. I actually passed through that spot the other week; I often ride there. This is quite bizarre; my wife and her family were all standing along a bit further to the right from where this picture was taken. I know the landscape quite well. At that moment, I’d hit the climb with a small gap to the chasers and had an idea in my head of how the race was going to pan out from that point. It had gone as I’d expected and it was just up to me to put in everything I had left to get up that climb, build a gap and hold it to the finish. The particular section of the course in the photo would be about four-five kilometres from the finish.”

Photo by Getty Images.

THE PAIN GAME

2008: TOUR DE FRANCE, STAGE 9, 224KM, TOULOUSE TO BAGNERES-DE-BIGORRE, FRANCE

“I see in inverted commas in the picture description it says, ‘Evans suffers from numerous scrapes on his elbow, thigh and hip, but they’re mostly superficial.’ Um, the heavy bruising underneath the surface of my skin, that actually cost me the 2008 Tour de France. That kind of bruising causes your body a bit of trauma when you’re already riding in an event as physically challenging as the Tour de France. Yeah, in the end, that accident cost me the win, unfortunately. I’m a little bit bitter about the whole thing. From there on in that race, though, I was still fighting for the win. That was physically the most difficult Tour de France I ever did. I had to dig so deep to be able to stay there and fight, despite being held up with the injury from my crash. Mentally, too, that race was very, very difficult.”

Photo by Getty Images.

MUDDY BEAUTY

2010: GIRO D’ITALIA, STAGE 7, CARRARA TO MONTALCINO, ITALY

“Sometimes you cross the finish line and you’re so exhausted, you’re not thinking of keeping a straight face. That particular stage finish was so ridiculous because of the weather conditions. Amazingly difficult. I was quite relieved to get across the finish line. I didn’t realise it at the time, but it was probably one of the most dramatic stages of a grand tour we’ve had for many years. I suppose I got to appreciate it afterwards. I was happy most of all because it was my first big points classification win with the BMC team in the rainbow jersey, but also because we’d done a lot of work and preparation leading up to that race. It all came together. In the end it still stays as personally one of my most satisfying victories.”

Photo by Getty Images.

DRESSED IN YELLOW

2011: TOUR DE FRANCE, STAGE 20, INDIVIDUAL TIME TRIAL PRESENTATION, GRENOBLE, FRANCE

“This one was taken in 2011. That was when I put the yellow jersey on to go on and win the Tour de France. I’d worn it, I think, on five or six occasions before, but all those had been during the middle stages of the race. This was after the Time Trial on the penultimate stage. It was probably all a bit surreal for me at that point. The thought in my previous wearings of the yellow would’ve been, ‘I’ve got it on, now how do I keep it?’ Whereas in this shot it was, ‘Now I’ve got it, no one can take it off me.’ It was a whole different situation to be in. To put it on there was, it seemed, too good to be true. On the last day of racing, we’d gotten there. If I do say so myself, our timing was pretty good.”

Photo by Getty Images.

SURROUNDED

2011: TOUR DE FRANCE, STAGE 14, SAINT-GAUDENS TO PLATEAU DE BEILLE, FRANCE

“When you’re racing, you’re just focussed. The Frenchman Thomas Voeckler’s got the yellow jersey; I don’t know why he’s riding on the front there ... But yeah, when you’re in it, when everything is coming together and the race is going well, you’re just focussed on that rider in front of you. Whether there’s five people on the roadside or 5000 ... The roar of 5000 people adds to the ambience, but your concentration on the race and on what needs to be done, making an attack, whatever the situation requires, you’re purely focused on that.”

Photo by Getty Images.

ROBEL AND I

2012: TOUR DE FRANCE, POST-FINAL STAGE, CHAMPS-ELYSEES, PARIS, FRANCE

“This photo was taken at the end of the 2012 Tour de France; I’d had a pretty average Tour all round. I later found out that I’d been competing with a form of chronic fatigue syndrome. I think I was seventh in that year’s Tour. It was a little bit disappointing, but all things considered, it wasn’t so bad. That image is a good refection of my future because my son is there with me. I don’t ride the Tour de France anymore: a part of that decision is so I can be with my son more. Just yesterday he asked me why I was finishing up for good in February – I’d told him I only had three races to go. And I said it was so I could ride with him on the weekends.”

Photo by Getty Images.