Australian team leader believes course didn’t suit lineup of BMC Racing Team squad
Hoping that his BMC Racing Team would perform better in the team time trial at the Giro d’Italia, Cadel Evans has giving a pragmatic reaction to the result, saying that he must simply accept the team’s twelfth place finish out of 23 squads yesterday.
The Australian is riding the race to prepare for the Tour de France but his ambitious nature means that he wants to be amongst those fighting for the Maglia Rosa. However after yesterday’s stage he has dropped 37 seconds to Bradley Wiggins and also conceded time to man of his other rivals.
Reacting afterwards, he said that he considered the race route to be one that didn't suit the lineup the team has in the race. “We had a lot of sprinter kind of guys and roulers, which normally in a team time trial is great,” he explained. “But this course was particularly hilly. Thirty-seven seconds is a little bit below what I had hoped or expected, had hoped for, but that's the way it is.”
He said that he was clear that the riders had done what they could to limit their losses. “The guys put in everything. Someone like Klaas Lodewyck – he really gave it absolutely everything he had today, so I'm certainly not going to ask anything more of him,” he said. “With three semi-sprinters and two rouleurs we could only ride the climbs as fast as our sixth and seventh rider could handle.
“In the end, a 37 second time loss is not great, but that is the way it is, so we continue on from here.”
The team’s Assistant Director Max Sciandri reinforced Evans’ suggestion that the lineup wasn’t particularly well suited to the profile of the stage. “There were climbs of eight, nine or ten percent,” he said. “I think if you look at the winning team, it is more of an imprint of a climber team.
“We had some really good guys who can go on the flats like a regular time trial, but we struggled a little bit with some guys on the climbs. I don't think we could have given anything more.”