Team News: Aussie hero Cadel Evans 3rd on home roads

2013_Picton_CyclesBanner_April_V2

BMC’s Aussie hero Cadel Evans was third and climbed up to fourth overall at the Santos Tour Down Under Wednesday.

RST Cycle Clothing & Trigon Bikes

Teammate Ben Hermans finished seventh while Brent Bookwalter, who was one of four BMC Racing Team riders to finish in the same time as stage winner Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida), is also in the top 10, in eighth.

stage2pw

Photo: Santos Tour Down Under / Regallo 

Evans bided his time on the long uphill drag to the line at the end of the 150-kilometer race, following wheels until the sprint began. The 2011 Tour de France and 2009 world road champion initially passed race leader Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE), who finished second.

But he could not latch onto the wheel of the fast-charging Ulissi, who earned a 10-second time bonus for the win. Evans said he started his sprint too early, only to get swamped at the finish. “I don’t know where Diego came from, but obviously with his finish yesterday (fourth), he was pretty good and had the legs and the timing to do it today,” Evans said.

“It was a bit of a lactate run to the line and I was going early and trying to hold them off.” In the overall standings, Gerrans leads Ulissi by seven seconds. André Greipel (Lotto Belisol Team) is third, at 11 seconds, while Evans is 13 seconds back.

BMC Racing Team Sport Director Fabio Baldato said it would have been advantageous to have had a harder day and more difficult finish. “There was a lot of road to come back and recover,” Fabio said. “We decided to save energy for tomorrow, which can be the hardest and can change things. We are there, not only with Cadel, but also with Ben and Brent and also Steve Morabito.”

“I hope the numbers can give us a little help.” Thursday’s stage includes the climb of Montacute/Corkscrew Road in the final kilometers, followed by a plunge to the finish. Evans said he doesn’t know if it will prove decisive.

“It depends on the group in front, what the wind does and collaboration and combination of the riders in the first and second groups,” he said. “It’s still pretty open, but every time you lose seconds on the general classification, it is less chance you are going to be up there on the GC.”

 

 

Other Results on VeloUK (including reports containing results)

Other News on VeloUK

Tags: