Australian disappointed in performance on first mountaintop finish of his season at Catalunya
Following his tenth place finish, fifty seconds behind the five-time embattled Grand Tour winner, Alberto Contador, on the Volta a Catalunya's Queen stage yesterday, BMC captain Cadel Evans admitted he still has a long way to go to get to the level that will hopefully make him a contender for the Maillot Jaune in July.
"Contador exceptional uphill, Scarponi and Levi good. Me average - got some work to do before July," tweeted the Australian following the finish in Andorra.
Speaking to his BMC Team a little while later, Evans expounded on his thoughts.
"Overall, it's a disappointing result, but at this time of year, not bad. Contador was exceptional, Michele Scarponi and Levi Leipheimer were pretty good, and I was ok, but certainly not with the best guys. I've got a bit of work to do for these uphill finishes. But I was aware of that before I came here. Fortunately, I have time to work on it."
Ahead of Wednesday's third stage of the Volta a Catalunya, 2009 World Champion, Cadel Evans, introduced the day to come and his predictions on his website.
"It will be my first true mountain top finish of the year, so an interesting test to see how I am going against the others. Of those, it looks like Contador is the man to beat, riding well, with a strong team and a few other issues going on outside of his racing. Expect Leipheimer to be up there, Matteo Carrar, Scarponi, Basso, amongst others."
Evans didn't let on to any huge expectations, nor did his performance indicate that there should have been. The 2009 World Champion says that Wednesday's mountaintop finish was a bit early for him compared to previous years.
"Real hills today with the last 43 kilometers up to Andorra, there was no hiding in the wheels today. An earlier uphill finish than I was used to in the past seasons."
The rider, who is focusing his season around the Tour de France, gives full credit to the Saxo Bank team, and describes the action in the finale, which lit up with only five kilometers remaining in the stage.
"For Saxo and Alberto though, they made it look easy; controlling the race all day, with Contador jumping explosively away in the final kilometers, only Scarponi and Leipheimer could react, keeping him at 20-30 seconds behind. I found my climbing level in the group behind, whom unfortunately seemed happy to race for fourth. That's racing - easy to analyze afterwards."
Last year's Fleche Wallonne winner was frank in his assessment of his efforts.
"Results wise, not much. Time wise for this part of the season, not a bad progression to be on for these mountain finishes."
Any dreams Evans might have harbored for the overall classification more or less disappeared on Wednesday in Andorra though.
"Unfortunately, with no time trial, no more selective finishes, and no time bonuses, it might be a closed race for GC now. A pity really. We'll see…normally another 'Peta' day again on Stage 4."
Evans's performance at Andorra-Vallnord was certainly not of the glorious type like that in Tirreno-Adriatico just a week ago, but it's certainly not cause for concern just yet. The Tour de France is still over three months distant. With that said, if Contador can escape appeal and gets the chance to race this summer's Tour de France, he is once again underlining the fact that he is the preeminent climber in the world and will be a difficult adversary, even for a much fitter Evans.