Tirreno-Adriatico race leader Cadel Evans has admitted that he didn’t quite expect to be going as well as he is in the race. The BMC Racing Team rider started the season later than last year and has just ridden one event before the Italian World Tour event, lining out in the Montepaschi Strade Bianche on March 5th.
However, despite that lack of competition kilometres, he took over in the blue jersey on yesterday’s stage to Castelraimondo. He is starting today’s second-last stage two seconds clear of Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale), three up on Damiano Cunego (Lampre ISD) and a further two seconds clear of Cuengo’s team-mate Michele Scarponi and Rabobank’s Robert Gesink.
“I’m a little surprised,” he admitted, “but I had a good off-season without too many distractions and I trained well at home. Yesterday [Saturday], was a good test for me and a pleasant surprise. It's a good sign, but it's still early days yet.”
The Australian moved into pole position yesterday after previous leader Gesink lost contact with the other contenders on the run-in to the finish. He chased hard but was unable to get back on terms, dropping seventeen seconds to stage winner Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) and fifteen to Evans, Basso and the others.
Evans said that it was important to get the tactics right. “It was an interesting stage in the sense that it was hard to interpret the stage, especially with the climb of Sasso Tetto,” he said. “Every climb was another selection, guys getting dropped. Rabobank worked only for the classification, and this worked in our favour. We were there just for the classification.”
He had traditionally tended to ride Paris-Nice instead of Tirreno-Adriatico. Performing so well in Italy prompted the question if he regretted not riding the event more often in the past, but he said that he can’t always pick and choose.
“I race everywhere, I can't be at all places at all the times,” he said. “Everyone wants me at the Giro too. April and March always takes a lot, also the Tour. At the end of the season, I am dead. This year, with BMC, we planned to take it easy and give me the most possibilities to win.”
The lighter programme is intended to keep him as fresh as possible, and to ensure that he arrives at the Tour de France with both the necessary reserves, and also some very good form. He’s twice taken second in the race and wants to make a big push to finally win cycling’s biggest event.
Racing less at the start of the year is a deliberate tactic but, looking at his Tirreno performance, it doesn’t seem to have stopped him from being in excellent condition early on. That’s got to be very encouraging for both himself and for his team.