Cadel Evans will stay with Lotto(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Candido Barbosa celebrates taking the overall lead.(Image credit: Volta a Portugal)
The Belgium based ProTour team Silence-Lotto announced that two-time Tour de France runner up Cadel Evans has signed a contract with the squad through 2010. The team had come under heavy criticism, sometimes from Evans himself, for not providing him better support in his bid to win the Tour de France. Evans had been isolated in the high mountains against the three-pronged attack from the CSC-Saxo Bank team, while new hire Yaroslav Popovych did not live up to expectations as a mountain domestique.
The relatively week support had spawned rumours that Evans would leave the team in search of a more powerful squad, but these now appear to be unfounded.
Evans has had stage victories in the Ruta del Sol, Paris-Nice and the Coppi e Bartali this year.
