BMC Racing Team sees opportunity on stages three and four
Continuing what has been a solid start to the Tour de France, BMC Racing Team rider Cadel Evans moved to tenth place overall on stage two of the race today. The 2011 overall winner was prominent on the final climb, which came twelve kilometres from the end, although he didn’t respond when Chris Froome (Sky) attacked over the top and raced ahead for a couple of kilometres.
“It was a little bit uncomfortable at race speed, but that’s normal,” Evans stated afterwards, then pointed out his gap in competition since the Giro d’Italia. “I had a bigger break from racing than any of my competitors. So that’s kind of normal.”
Evans rolled in 22nd, being part of the big group which finished a second behind the stage winner and new race leader Jan Bakelants.
He is also a second behind in the overall standings, and is thus level on time with all of his main rivals.
“For the most part we are riding good and trying to use our experience,” he said. “I probably have enough experience now! But things are going well, I am staying out of trouble. We are all healthy, that is the most important thing at this stage of the race.”
Team-mates Philippe Gilbert and Tejay van Garderen shrugged off any stiffness from their crashes yesterday, placing eighteenth and 27th.
The team’s directeur sportif Jean Lelangue was upbeat after the stage, interpreting the day’s action as showing the team is in a good situation.
“We had only one guy dropped on the climb, but all the rest were around Cadel, so that’s a good sign for the next three weeks,” he said, referring to the Col de Vizzavona,the day’s big climb. “For the moment, everything is going well. We know we have still one difficult day in Corsica and then we are entering the team time trial in Nice.”
Evans said that the next two days were important for him and the team, not least because it could give them a chance to gain time.