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\u2018Cadel: Lungs on Legs\u2019 (a title derived from praise heaped upon the rider by an early coach) is a one-man show co-written by and starring New York-based Australian actor-stroke-athlete Connor Delves, that traces Evans\u2019 often tumultuous journey to the top of the cycling world, where he became the Tour\u2019s first, and to this date only, Aussie winner and, at the age of 34, the race\u2019s oldest post-war champion.<\/p>\n
Cadel Evans on last day of 2011 Tour de France (credit: Photosport International)<\/p>\n
Premiering at the Fringe this summer, and centred around Evans\u2019 crucial Tour-winning time trial in Grenoble, it recounts the BMC leader\u2019s nomadic upbringing (including a close encounter with a horse) and his path to the pro peloton through mountain biking and the Australian Institute of Sport.<\/p>\n
Those agonising near misses at the Tours of the mid-2000s are there, as are Evans\u2019 often tetchy relationships with both his teams (looking at you, Lotto) and the media, and his redemptive, late-career triumphs at the world championships in 2009 and that groundbreaking 2011 Tour.<\/p>\n
Evans\u2019 story is a fascinating one, for sure, but the way Delves tells it on stage is just as extraordinary. The actor \u2013 in what the play\u2019s press release aptly describes as \u201can epic feat of endurance\u201d \u2013 performs basically the entire one-hour show while riding a BMC, set up on a Wahoo turbo trainer. And when I say he\u2019s riding his bike, he\u2019s really riding his bike.<\/p>\n
When Evans is overhauling Andy Schleck on the way to yellow during that decisive final time trial in 2011, Delves is down in an aero tuck, pumping out the watts. When he\u2019s hauling himself up the Galibier, he\u2019s out of the saddle, hunched over, elbows wide in trademark Cadel-style. In Mendrisio, he sprints that final kilometre to the rainbow jersey.<\/p>\n
![\"Connor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/connor-delves-cadel-evans.jpg\" "\\"Connor")
Connor Delves as Cadel Evans (credit: Cadel: Lungs on Legs)<\/p>\n
In the small, cavernous, 88-seater room, with its awkward wide layout and extremely low ceiling, that served as the play\u2019s home for three weeks, located just beyond the dizzying claustrophobia of the Fringe\u2019s variation on the Royal Mile, the sweat on the stage at the end of Cadel\u2019s hour is very real.<\/p>\n
Delves tells road.cc he covered over 27 kilometres during every one-hour performance. Every day. For three straight weeks. While acting. Talk about a grand tour.<\/p>\n
Adding to that fusion between the athletic and the artistic, when I briefly caught up with Delves after the show, he carried the hollowed-out, drained \u2013 if still decidedly cheery \u2013 expression of a pro cyclist halfway through the Tour\u2019s third week.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s fair to say the hard work paid off. Cadel: Lungs on Legs was one of the breakout hits of the 2025 Fringe.<\/p>\n
The Scotsman described Cadel as a \u201ccompellingly physical tribute\u201d to the Tour\u2019s oldest post-war winner. Theatre Weekly gave it five stars and branded it a \u201cgreat story, passionately told with heart\u201d, and basically every review called it a \u2018tour de force\u2019. Because it wouldn\u2019t be a review about cycling without that well-worn clich\u00e9, would it?<\/p>\n
It also won two \u2018best show of the Fringe\u2019 awards, MyCulturalLife\u2019s reviewer said it was the \u201cbest thing I\u2019ve seen in 24 years of the Edinburgh Fringe\u201d, and \u2013 after word of mouth got round \u2013 every single show for its final two and a half weeks (90 per cent of its run) was a sellout.<\/p>\n
Following that whirlwind in Edinburgh, Delves is taking the play to London for a one-off showcase on 12 September, and plans are afoot for a longer stay in the capital, as well as runs down under in Australia (naturally) and New York.<\/p>\n
Yes, we\u2019re still talking about a play about cycling.<\/p>\n
![\"Connor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/pxl20250821132705471.jpg\" "\\"Connor")
Connor Delves as Cadel Evans (credit: Ryan Mallon)<\/p>\n
Back home in New York, where he was enjoying a few rest days before heading across the pond once more for his upcoming showcase in London, Delves \u2013 understandably \u2013 links the sensation of creating a hit play with that experienced by Evans following his long-awaited Tour win.<\/p>\n
\u201cPerhaps similarly to how Cadel felt when he won the Tour, it\u2019s a very strange feeling to be through the Fringe and the premiere, because it went so well,\u201d he tells the road.cc Podcast. \u201cWe knew what we were taking and we were confident with the show, but you never know how audiences are going to respond.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo to be sold out, have audiences really excited, and to have the theatre audience embrace it as well, with the critics being very kind, it\u2019s overwhelming. I\u2019m now excited to be sharing it with more people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fact that Delves created a play about a professional cyclist \u2013 and one that requires him to actually ride a bike \u2013 should come as no surprise. He grew up in his family\u2019s bike shop in Perth, and has continued cycling and running his entire life (with a bit of Aussie Rules thrown in).<\/p>\n
\u201cI really wanted to bring endurance and elite sport to the stage,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause it was something I knew I was capable of, and it\u2019s something you don\u2019t see. You don\u2019t see authentic sport on the stage very often.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the goals of the show is to bring sport and theatre together on the macro level. But on the micro level, there are lots of similarities between being an athlete and an actor \u2013 and I just happen to be both of those things.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I can really understand the mindset. For instance, the Tour \u2013 yes, it\u2019s three and a bit weeks, but it takes years of planning, building the team, getting the right people into place, the training, and some luck as well, to pull off a Tour de France. And just to finish it, let alone win it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s exactly the same with a play. To create a play, particularly in this political and financial climate, is one of the most difficult things in the world, let alone to do it well and to go to the biggest festival in the world. And this year was actually down on overall sales, so for us to sell out and have the reception and success we did, it\u2019s a miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Connor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/connor-delves-cadel-evans-2.jpg\" "\\"Connor")
Connor Delves as Cadel Evans (credit: Cadel: Lungs on Legs)<\/p>\n
Of course, as anyone who\u2019s experienced the pain of a winter training alone in their shed will know all too well, riding a bike on a turbo trainer for an hour every day is not easy. Especially when you have to produce some high-quality, dynamic acting, as well.<\/p>\n
To prepare for the role, Delves undertook, with the help of a coach, a serious turbo-focused training regimen (even eschewing outdoor rides for a blast on the Wahoo), as well as a new diet which involved giving up alcohol.<\/p>\n
And, like any good Tour contender, Delves also devised a fuelling strategy \u2013 built into the play\u2019s narrative \u2013 for before, during, and after the show.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew when I first came up with this idea, I said I want to ride on stage for an hour flat out, full gas,\u201d he asserts. \u201cPeople can see the gears, I\u2019m not lying. I\u2019m dialled into the trainer, with the back wheel on and you can see the watts that I\u2019m putting out. It\u2019s like doing an interval session every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery show is tracked as well, so you can see what I\u2019m doing \u2013 and the sweat on the stage at the end of the show proves that too!<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Cadel is such a gritty rider, he really worked for his wins. Some of those pulls on the mountains, where he hung onto the Schlecks when it looked like he could be dropped, he did by himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wasn\u2019t dragged along, he didn\u2019t have as super team to pull him up the mountains like some other Tour winners. The way Cadel rode is a big reason why I wanted to bring it to the stage, because he\u2019s so gritty and could lock in at a high threshold of pain.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone said to me the other day, \u2018oh you must like the pain\u2019. And I said, \u2018well, I do now!\u2019 Because I know I can do it. But it\u2019s a mindset you have to find.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cadel Evans (credit: Gian Mattia D’Alberto)<\/p>\n
It\u2019s clear Delves has a strong affinity with his subject, his sporting hero growing up as a child in Perth, where many late nights were spent watching Evans slog up an Alpine col in pursuit of yellow.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing an Australian, we, as performing artists and story tellers, are being encouraged to write and speak about who we are, and what we come from. And there are not many opportunities for Australian performing artists to speak their own voice on the global stage,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s something I\u2019ve always been really passionate about. What Cadel did for me as a child \u2013 I was in my early teenage years when he won \u2013 and the only time I was allowed to stay up late was to watch the Tour! And I stayed up late a lot, because there were so many good stages that Cadel was doing well in.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it just really changed the fabric of Australian sport. And he\u2019s so Australian in the way he holds himself, so down to earth, about the hard work, he didn\u2019t do it easy. It felt like a perfect fit really.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s such a great representative for our country, for the sport, and has had an incredibly interesting life. It\u2019s so entertaining and so theatrical. It made perfect sense to me, and I said to myself, \u2018well, Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet can\u2019t replace me on this one\u2019, so I think it\u2019s the right one for me!\u201d<\/p>\n
That connection with Evans (who Delves chatted with while writing the play), and genuine love of cycling, has resulted in a show that strives for authenticity, right down to the retro noughties kit and tech he uses on stage.<\/p>\n
The attention to detail is impressive. Predictor Lotto\u2019s divisive salmon kit is there, as are Evans\u2019 trademark black and green Diadora shoes, and the actual BMC jersey, complete with rainbow band sleeves, that Evans wore when he beat Alberto Contador in a photo finish at M\u00fbr-de-Bretagne on stage four of the 2011 Tour.<\/p>\n
And the yellow Teammachine Delves rides during the victorious Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es scene \u2013 albeit less ferociously on the turbo and with fewer watts than the rest of the show \u2013 is the one BMC built especially for Evans\u2019 ride into Paris.<\/p>\n
![\"BMC](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/pxl20250821132511645.jpg\" "\\"BMC")
BMC yellow Cadel Evans Teammachine (credit: Ryan Mallon)<\/p>\n
For a show that achieved such critical and commercial success during its run in Edinburgh, it\u2019s also (I was pleased to discover) packed with little details that will appeal to obsessives.<\/p>\n
Evans\u2019 long-term frustration with Lotto, which came to boiling point at the 2009 Vuelta, is covered in detail. There\u2019s the mechanical on the T\u00e9l\u00e9graphe in 2011, the boos that greeted Contador at Puy de Fou, and, of course, that infamous \u2018don\u2019t touch me\u2019 moment during one of Evans\u2019 hated post-stage encounters with the media, who Delves admits play the role of the \u201cvillain\u201d for much of the show.<\/p>\n
That authenticity is accentuated by the use of two screens either side of the stage, occasionally playing real footage and commentary from Evans\u2019 career.<\/p>\n
Delves also recreates the final moments of that 2011 time trial \u2013 a stage he says that still gives him \u201ctingles\u201d \u2013 pedal stroke by pedal stroke, backed by Phil Liggett\u2019s live commentary. And that\u2019s where Delves\u2019 fastidious attention to detail and immersion in the world of Cadel pays off spectacularly.<\/p>\n
\u201cKnowing we had to match me up with footage, we had to get that right. Swinging around the final corner in the TT in 2011 is probably my most favourite image of all time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd with Phil\u2019s voice, and Phil being such a supporter of the show, I knew I had to nail that, to learn exactly what pedal stroke he was on for which word, when he went back onto the TT bars, I needed to match that exactly.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd people get joy in that, seeing the fusion of the actor and the real person come together. I was big on the physical side and the way he climbed, but in terms of his personality \u2013 there weren\u2019t actually many mysteries in the way that I played him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s a blend of me, the actor, bringing my understanding of him to the role. But I would like to think there\u2019s enough of authentic Cadel in there that. Phil Liggett said to me, after our first show, \u2018that was Cadel, you are Cadel\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that was a very moving moment for me because Phil knows him so well and Phil is the cycling person in the world for me anyway. When Phil said that, that was a nice tick of approval.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, after taking Scotland by storm, what\u2019s next for Cadel?<\/p>\n
Well, Delves, after showcasing the play in Soho this week, is hoping to secure a longer run in the capital, before taking it \u2018home\u2019 to Australia in 2026 and then New York, where he\u2019s based. And, who knows, a television series about the life of Cadel Evans could be coming to a streaming platform near you in the not-so-distant future.<\/p>\n
\u201cCycling is watched on the screen, on the TV, and I think it would make a great TV series,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s my dream for this. It\u2019s something I would love to do, to play him actually riding out on the roads, riding\u00a0the actual mountains. Making this into a mini-series is the end goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd people say, oh, you\u2019re quite bold saying that. And I\u2019m like, well, Cadel was bold in winning the Tour.\u201d<\/p>\n
More information about Cadel: Lungs on Legs and future dates can be found at cadeltheplay.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n The\u00a0road.cc\u00a0Podcast is available on\u00a0Apple Podcasts<\/a>,\u00a0Spotify<\/a>, and\u00a0Amazon Music<\/a>, and if you have an Alexa you can just tell it to play the\u00a0road.cc\u00a0Podcast. It\u2019s also embedded further up the page, so you can just press play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cycling obsessives are united by a common bond. We all know the struggle associated with trying to explain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-138186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}