It's all panning out so differently from how the Armstrong fans had hoped. In stage 8, we were witness to two Planet Lance phenomena never seen before in le Tour.

Lance fell victim to events beyond his control, crashing three times, requiring two bike changes. He has had crashes before, and had to chase, but never with such dramatic consequences.

Then he gave a remarkably philosophical interview describing his chances of an eighth Tour de France victory as all but over due to the huge time losses on the stage. That now he could enjoy this race, just be involved.

With this turn of events, and Andy Schleck's first TdF stage victory, came Cadel Evans' return to the leader's maillot jaune.

The Australian, who often seems to be labouring under the burden of Great Expectation, finally seemed calm and in a good place.

On the rest day, he commented that he wasn't sure what his Team BMC would ‘do' about it or how they would defend the yellow jersey in the face of stronger teams.

At least he was confident that his performances in crashed-marred early stages were less about luck and more about skill. He had managed the pavé, the terrible weather and the dangerous roads, with minimal time losses and no injuries. Or so we thought.

On stage 9, the second difficult mountain stage of this year's tour, a break of seven had been away for hours, and then the action started.

With 10km to go on the Col de Madeleine, Team Astana ramped up the pace in pursuit of the break, and Cadel was dropped. Unceremoniously and without a teammate in sight.

It looked like a terrible combustion, the slowed and tired response not unlike most of the other climbers in this front group, including Armstrong, recent Giro d'Italia winner, Ivan Basso, former TdF winner Carlos Sastre, and the other Australian GC contender, Michael Rogers (HTC-Columbia).

Where some riders can climb a 20km mountain at the incredible but constant pace that you and I could only dream about, others will repeatedly attack and settle, cracking the legs of the diesel engines in the group.

The two favourites for this tour, Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) and Alberto Contador (Astana), seemed to be battling like Tom Cruise and the Val Kilmer in Top Gun - mostly pointless shows of strength and foxing, with a moderate benefit of gaining time on the leader.

But after reaching the summit of this climb, they had put mostly irretrievable minutes into Evans and were working well together on the descent. By the finish line, they had over eight minutes' advantage, and Cadel's day in yellow was over, along with his tour hopes.

As he crossed the line, the Victorian looked desolate and exhausted. (And, as pictured above, he collapsed in tears into the arms of BMC teammate Mauro Santambrogio.) The taping on his left forearm and elbow was revealed to be supporting a fracture, an injury he'd chosen to keep a secret and see if he could ‘fake it through to the finish.'

There is a history of riders triumphing through grand tours with injuries. And two weeks on a bike is a bit different from fractured ribs and punctured lungs in an AFL grand final between mullet-haired teams.

Tyler Hamilton famously won a stage of the Tour after he'd fractured his clavicle in a crash in the first week. He raised his little wing in the air like a broken bird, and our hearts were warmed til we found out Tyler was a dirty doping cheat.

Cadel has chosen to continue the Tour, and was emphatic in his thanks to his team's hard work. His public statement was that as long as he wasn't doing the joint any permanent damage, he would aim to finish.

Goals will need to be adjusted, ambitions tempered. But one gets the sense that he is doing this because he is compelled, and set his plans on it. Not for Australia, or for the ‘battler' image.

At least he and Armstrong have chosen to continue, despite no chance of victory, out of respect for their teams, training and preparation and whomever is wearing the maillot jaune.

There are plenty of other GC contenders who might wish they had valid excuses for poor performances so far ....

Bridie O'Donnell is an Australian professional rider with UCI Team Valdarno and spends six months of each year in Tuscany (where she is now) and six months in Melbourne. She will be a regular cycling columnist for BackPageLead - (when she's not filing for her blog, Bridie.com.au.)