BMC rider ready to fight back despite Uran taking pink
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Maglia rosa Cadel Evans (BMC Racing)(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Race leader Cadel Evans(Image credit: Sirotti)
An emotional Cadel Evans (BMC)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Cadel Evans (BMC) lost the pink jersey to Rigoberto Uran at the Giro d'Italia but he took the blow on the chin, praising the Colombian but insisting that the race was far from over.
Evans finished a solid third in the hilly 41.9km time trial, close to the other overall contenders but he was 1:34 slower than Uran and so slipped to second overall, 37 seconds behind the Colombian.
"Everything went well in this Giro until yesterday but I went a bit slow today," he admitted.
"If we look at the time difference between the top two, three or four, the times are quite close but he (Uran) was in a class of his own today. We were all close but he started strong and went even faster. He was suited to the course and had a good day. I expected him to do well and I hoped to have gone better."
"I started steady and increased my speed but the road was very slippery and so I went slow on the descent and on the second climb to stay safe. But then it was the same conditions for everyone."
The overall classification has flipped with Uran now in pink and Evans in second. He will have to gain time somewhere between now and end of the Giro d'Italia in Trieste but on the plus side, his BMC team no longer has to control the race and protect the maglia rosa.
"It's going to be interesting," Evans said when asked what will happen next in the race, as a weekend of mountain stages in the Alps loom.
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"I think we'll see a new team with the responsibility to control the race. There's still a lot of Giro yet to be raced and the results of Pozzovivo showed that he's still in the game too. Lets look to the future. This Giro is still very long."
Stephen is the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters, Shift Active Media, and CyclingWeekly, among other publications.
