World road race champion Cadel Evans is happy with the BMC Racing team’s invite to the Giro d’Italia, and will test his form in the mountain stages of the race.
“I’m looking forward to the interesting stages, such as the Strade Bianche, Plan de Corones and Zoncolan,” he said. “Whether they suit me or not, I don’t know. We’ll find out when we get there.”
Evans has shown very promising form thus far this season, with a number of high places confirming that he is already in condition. He got things underway with third and fourth on stages of the Tour Down Under, plus sixth place overall. He marked his European debut with fifth place in the GP dell’Insubria, and then placed third, fourth and eighth on stages of Tirreno-Adriatico. That put him third overall in the final classification, and third in the points standings.
He is also visibly more relaxed, and appears to be under far less pressure than before. There are a couple of reasons for that; one is that in winning the world championships last autumn, he has finally landed one of the biggest victories in the sport. It’s taken the pressure off in terms of leaving a mark on the sport.
The second is his move to the BMC Racing Team, which has been built around him and, according to Evans, is giving him more support and respect than his previous squad.
He has only ridden the Giro d’Italia once before, leading the race and finishing 14th overall in 2002.
Directeur sportif John Lelangue has said that the team will try to help him to a place in the top three overall.
“It’s going to be a very difficult race,” he said. “All the big champions have been there and all the big champions have won it. So we are going to the Giro with the world champion with the objective to be competitive. To try to do our best to be on the podium with Cadel and have a strong team with him is a big satisfaction for the team.”
“It’s one of our main objectives of the season,” he said. “Before being selected, we have done a lot of reconnaissance of some stages, including the team time trial, the Strade Bianche and two of the other mountain stages.”
Team President Jim Ochowicz has faith that Evans can do something there. “With Cadel, we have one of the contenders for the Giro within our own ranks, so that’s going to be fun to move through the race and see how it develops over the three weeks.”
The three week race begins on May 8th and is 3,418 kilometres in length.