Cadel Evans is getting great support from all his BMC teammates in the Tirreno-Adriatico race. Today the Australian showed his good early season form by pulling hard in the end to gain eight seconds against race leader Michele Scarponi. Evans lies now 18 seconds behind, in fourth place overall.
Evans' problem was that Stefano Garzelli and Astana's Maxim Iglinskiy jumped on Evans' wheel, when he tried to go. Evans decided to continue to gain time on Scarponi, but it also gave Garzelli and Iglinsky valuable time bonuses for their second and third places, respectively.
The BMC team was still happy. "He did a great strategic job, together with Thomas Frey," said team owner Andy Rihs after the race. "It is a great performance for Cadel, Thomas and the whole team." Rihs thinks there are more opportunities for the Evans to improve his overall position. "Tomorrow there is another nice, hilly stage, but today was already really tough - that was a real climb."
Rihs was referring to the central part of the race, where three ascents had to be climbed in rapid succession, the Forca di Presta (1535m), Frontignano (1208m) and Le Arette (1113m). BMC's Mathias Frank confirmed this.
"This was a tough stage, with a long climb after 150km. We tried to do everything for Cadel, since he has a good position in the overall. In the end, Thomas was still with him and did an awesome job, as did the whole team. Then Cadel got fourth, which is superb."
Frank was in a 20-man group, including BMC teammates George Hincapie and Brent Bookwalter. "We tried to come back, so we could help Cadel some more, but it just didn't work. We raced for about 40km and the gap stayed the same."