Mountain biking skills and intelligent riding pay off for the road World champion
World champion Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) put in an impressive ride on the cobblestones during the closing kilometers of stage three of the Tour de France today, and with it, put himself into third place overall at the very top of the standings from the list of pre-race favorites.
Evans, also a former mountain bike World champion, was expected to benefit from American national champion George Hincapie on the ride to Arenberg, but the Classics rider punctured on the most severe of the seven cobbled sectors and missed the final selection.
"It was probably the worst," Evans said of the pavé where his teammate flatted. "On the shoulders it was all cut up."
The rainbow jersey was forced to improvise, instead shadowing Paris-Roubaix winner Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) and runner-up Thor Hushovd (Cervelo TestTeam) to eventually finish third on the stage.
"Just to get through it as a GC rider – and get through it without losing any time – was all that I wanted," Evans explained. "[They] weren't going to let me go anywhere. I'm not quite built for the cobbles. With the wind and everything, there wasn't any chance for any big heroics."
The Australian put in a bold ride and contributed to the pacemaking as the group containing himself, Andy Schleck, Cancellara, Hushovd, Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Transitions) and Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) picked their way across northern France. Cancellara absolutely drilled the pace for the younger Schleck, leaving nothing for the final, thus handing the win to Hushovd.
In the end, Evans found himself 39 seconds behind maillot jaune Cancellara and 30 seconds in front of last year's runner-up Schleck. For their efforts, he and Schleck put 53 seconds on Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky), Denis Menchov (Rabobank) and Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana), and a further 20 seconds on an unlucky Alberto Contador (Astana), who flatted in the final kilometer. Roman Krueziger (Liquigas) came in 1 minute and 46 seconds behind the leading group, with the rest of the overall contenders losing more than two minutes.
"Twenty seconds isn't going to mean much after the Pyrenees," Evans admitted. "But a little bit is better than nothing."