Cadel Evans made it two out of two for Australians in Saint-Vallier yesterday. After Luke Durbridge had taken the prologue and the Orica-Greenedge team was on a high, Evans raised the party to another level with his gutsy win over Jerome Coppel and Andrey Kashechkin. Evans has been a serial bridesmaid at the Dauphiné in years gone past. Having been a runner up on four separate occasions 2012 may be the year Evans breaks the mould. An early win will certainly be a confidence booster and only three weeks out from the Tour will be a psychological win over his rivals as well.
In an after the press interview Evans told the reporter that it hadn’t been an objective to win the stage today but as a racer you won't to win. Evans had been captured in the final 20kms heading to front of the peloton and looked to be calling in his BMC teammates telling them to call off the chase of the four man breakaway. It had seemed the breakaway which contained Giovanni Bernaudeau (Europcar), Markel Irizar (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Sep Vanmarcke (Garmin-Barracuda), Maarten Tjallingii (Rabobank) and Yukihiro Doi (Argos-Shimano) would stay away after riding off the front in the first few kms. Once Evans had called in his troops Omega Pharma-Quickstep took over and looked to be setting up Gerald Ciolek for a sprint win. The move eventuated in the break being caught on the last of the six climbs for the day. As the breakaway was being reeled in, the Evans group blasted away staying a few seconds off the front of the peloton for the final 8kms all the way to the finish line. Ciolek finished 7th overall on the stage and 4th in the bunch sprint behind the Evans group.
One major talking point besides the gusty and powerful win by Evans will be how Andy Schleck faded and was dropped on a cat 3 climb. Schleck ended the day 3:10 minutes down on Evans but it will not the time that he lost that will be scrutinised but how three weeks from his seasons goal he allowed himself to fall of the back of the peloton. Not only did he fade away but looked to simply cruise into the finish line at one point talking to Vinokourov. His loss of time today may be ploy so that Schleck can solo away for a mountain win without the close attention of the GC candidates. Either way this will only add more intrigue to the Schleck–Bruyneel drama that’s being played in the broadsheets. It may well have been a day in which three GC men ended the day achieving something else than what was their objective. For Evans and Wiggins that is a positive. Evans took the sprinters green jersey lead along with his stage win while Wiggins is in yellow with a one second advantage over Evans. Wiggins wasn’t out to take the yellow jersey so early but will no doubt enjoy a day in yellow as he looks to defend his title from last year. If Wiggins is successful in his defence it will be the first time since Alejandro Valverde in 2008/09 that a rider has defended their title.
Standings
GC: Bradley Wiggins 4:43:04
2nd Cadel Evans +01
3rd Andriy Grivko +02
4th Carlos Barredo +02
5th Tony Martin +04
Points: Cadel Evans 27
2nd Jerome Coppel 22
3rd Andrey Kashechkin 20
Mountains Classification: Giovanni Bernaudeau 23
2nd Nicolas Edet 18
3rd Sep Vanmarcke 12
Young Rider: Edvald Boasson Hagen 4:43:10
2nd Tejay Van Garderen +05
3rd Tony Gallopin +06
Teams: Sky 14:09:25
2nd Rabobank +02
3rd Omega Pharma-Quickstep Lotto + 04
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