Australian's strong on uphill finish to end the first day in second place overall
Cadel Evans has had his share of bad luck in the Tour de France in the past, but has nothing to complain about after day one in the 2011 edition. He sits in second place overall, three seconds behind Philippe Gilbert. More importantly, he has now 1'17 on Alberto Contador, who was delayed by a crash in the final part of stage one. Evans hopes for a good team time trial to put some more time into other rivals.
An Astana rider hit a spectator, who was looking the other way, causing a massive pile-up. The delay was long enough for a smaller group to separate itself, including BMC riders George Hincapie, Marcus Burghardt, and Evans. BMC worked hard on the front with the RadioShack team, increasing the initial 30-second gap to over a minute by the finish line.
On the finishing climb, which suits Evans well, the Australian made no mistakes. "George helped me really well going into the bottom of the climb and I was really perfectly positioned," Evans said. Initially, Evans was content with just sitting in. "I thought I would go conservatively but then a Katusha or Astana rider attacked and I got a bit closed in." When he managed to break free, the stage victory was decided. "I tried to go across to Gilbert, but it was just a little bit too late."
This will not bother Evans, as he has a good general classification placing, sitting three seconds ahead of all his main rivals and even further on Contador. The three seconds at least give him a morale boost for the remaining three weeks.
Evans said he is looking forward to Sunday's 23-kilometer team time trial. "It's going to be another important test," he said. "Hopefully we can have a repeat of gaining seconds today. That would be the ultimate." Although several BMC riders were caught up in the big crash and a smaller one with two kilometers to go, none were seriously hurt.
Evans has finished in the Tour de France second on two occasions (2007 and 2008) along with a fourth place (2006) and eighth in his first appearance at the Grande Boucle (2005). In 2008 and 2010, he suffered crashes, but finished the race in both years. Evans has also been a road racing World Champion (2009) and has won Flèche Wallonne in 2010.
He has a very good season thus far. Wins in Tirreno-Adriatico, the Tour de Romandie and a second place in the Critérium du Dauphiné have put him in the box as one of the Tour de France favorites.