Evans, McGee replaced by Hansen, Day for worlds TT

By Susan Westemeyer

Tour de France runner-up Cadel Evans and Olympian Brad McGee have been removed from Australia's Time Trial entrants at this week's World Road Championships in Stuttgart, Germany with T-Mobile's Adam Hansen and Navigators Insurance's Ben Day being drafted in to replace the pair. Both Predictor-Lotto's Evans and Française des Jeux's McGee will still don the green and gold for Sunday's road race.

Hansen had been in a hurry to finish the last stage of the Vuelta on the weekend, so that he could catch his flight home but he never made it. The slow-paced last stage was not at fault for Hansen missing his flight, after the race he was told that he was being removed from the replacement list for the World Championships and would start the Time Trial on Thursday.

"I found out after the race that I go straight from here to Germany for the Worlds TT, which is pretty cool," he told Cyclingnews. Hansen finished 10th in the Vuelta's final Time Trial last Saturday.

Cycling Australia had originally planned to start Evans and McGee in the Time Trial, but announced on Monday that Hansen and Day would replace the pair. It's believed the toll of contesting both the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España, which only just finished on Sunday, lead to Evans' decision to focus on the road race world title.

Hansen is happy to be riding in the Worlds. "It's my first time in the national team, which is good," he said. "I'm looking forward to it. I'm excited and I like the course, nice and hilly to break it up. I'm not tired from the Vuelta, or not yet, so I hope I can keep it that way 'till the TT."

Hansen has another, more personal, reason for his happiness at being in Stuttgart though. "My girlfriend, Alena Konecna, was giving me a hard time because she is racing here on Saturday and I wasn't even coming," he laughed. "So it's good that we are both racing at the Worlds." Konecna will ride the road race as a member of the Czech Republic team.