BMC Racing Team rider Cadel Evans will line out in Tirreno-Adriatico on Wednesday without feeling under pressure to be an overall contender. He has taken a different approach to this season, wishing to gear everything towards making a real push for the Tour de France, and has scheduled far less early racing than in other seasons.
While Tour rivals such as Alberto Contador and Denis Menchov are already in strong form, he wants to build slowly and gradually towards being in his best possible shape in July.
For this reason, he doesn’t set specific targets for himself for Tirreno-Adriatico, aside from wanting to perform well in the opening race against the clock on Wednesday. “I would like to be able to a good team time trial. From there, we'll see,” he said. “I don't have any high expectations, but I won't be bad, either.”
The team contest begins and ends at Marina di Carrara, covers 16.8 kilometres and is completely flat. Assistant Director Fabio Baldato said that it will reveal the riders who are in the best shape. “After the team time trial, we can see which one of our riders has the best chance to go for the general classification,” he explained.
Both Evans and team-mate Alessandro Ballan have taken third overall in the race. Ballan has shown strong form this season, and was second behind Philippe Gilbert in the Montepaschi Strade Bianche on Saturday. Given that form and Evans’ non-committal statement, it seems likely that he may end up being the team’s best GC hope. However Evans is a better natural climber and that could come into effect.
The squad will also feature proven winners George Hincapie and Marcus Burghardt, as well as time trial specialists Manuel Quinziato and Michael Schär. Mauro Santambrogio and Greg Van Avermaet are also very capable of doing something, making the BMC Racing Team lineup likely to be one of the strongest in the race.