Showing his buildup to the Tour de France is perfectly on track, the 2006 Tour de Romandie winner Cadel Evans sealed his second victory in the race by finishing in the main bunch at the end of the concluding 164.6 kilometre race to Geneva.
Evans had no problems during the stage, with his BMC Racing Team controlling things and keeping tabs on his rival Alexandre Vinokourov. The Astana rider started the stage third overall, 19 second behind and, as predicted by Evans yesterday, tried to clip away and make up his time deficit. Evans’ squad was quick to respond, though, reeling him in and containing the danger.
It also helped limit the time gained by the day’s breakaway group. It comprised several riders, with Pierre Rolland (Eurocar), John Gadret (Ag2r La Mondiale), Steven Kruijswijk (Rabobank) and Mathias Brandle (Geox-TMC) pushing ahead towards the end and holding a minute’s lead with 30 kilometres to go. They were hauled back inside the final ten kilometres, paving the way for a bunch sprint and success for Sky Procycling rider Ben Swift.
“Any stage victory on the World Tour is hard, so certainly this is a big win,” Evans said afterwards, savouring the success. “It's a bit strange to have won the overall and not to have won a stage. But I got a bit unlucky at the finish in Romont, and in the time trial when the wind conditions were a bit unfavourable to the later starters.
“Certainly, in a couple days when I have time to look back, I'll be very, very satisfied with the season so far.”
The British rider Swift was quickest at the end, picking up his first stage victory in this year’s race. The Sky Procycling rider blasted home ahead of Davide Vigano (Leopard Trek) and triple world champion Oscar Freire (Rabobank), with Evans’ closest overall rival Tony Martin (HTC Highroad) netting seventh.
“I have climbed well throughout the Tour de Romandie and we really wanted the stage win after Neuchatel, where Tony Martin bluffed us all with his class close to the finish,” Swift said. “Today, my team protected me all day during the climbs and I could not expect anything better. Winning in front of Oscar is an honour because he is the kind of rider that I hope to become.”
The result was Swift’s fourth victory of the season, following on from his two stage wins in the Santos Tour Down Under in January plus his victory two weeks ago on stage five of Vuelta a Castilla y Leon.
As for Evans, the Australian ended the WorldTour race 18 seconds clear of Martin, and has now taken his second stage race victory of the season. Last month he scooped the overall classification in Tirreno-Adriatico.
Evans has planned a completely different programme to 2010. He will race less prior to the Tour de France, deliberately missing the Giro d’Italia in order to be in the best shape possible for July’s big event. He’s finished twice there before and is determined to push for the overall title once again.
His result in Romandie shows that he has suffered no major drop in form despite the recent injury which kept him out of the Ardennes Classics. In fact, directeur sportif John Lelangue says the break from racing could have been of some benefit.
“It allowed him to continue to do the time trial intensity work he needed,” he explained. “Here, we took things day-by-day and he was feeling better and better. We didn't know how he was going to be for the time trial, but he is back on the level. Now he needs to rest and recover a bit and then prepare for his next test, which will be the Critérium du Dauphiné.”