BMC Racing Team’s Cadel Evans continued his climb up the overall classification Saturday at the Critérium du Dauphiné, first by matching the pace of race leader Bradley Wiggins (Sky Procycling) on the final climb, then by using his descending skills to get away from him.
The BMC Racing Team leader attacked over the top of the Col de Joux-Plane, the last of six climbs of the 167.5-kilometer race. After initially gaining a gap on the 12 km descent, the chasing efforts of Wiggins’s teammates brought him back. But Evans attacked again to finish second on the stage behind Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team), while pulling back eight seconds on Wiggins and moving into third place overall. “I was hoping for a little bit of a chance for the stage (win),” Evans said. “But I also heard Tony Martin was dropped on the Joux-Plane and I wanted to maintain the gap on him.”
With only Sunday’s 124.5 km stage to go, Evans is 16 seconds behind second-placed Michael Rogers (Sky Procycling). He’s back in the lead of the points classification. Though the final stage features five categorized climbs including a summit finish, BMC Directeur Sportif said it won’t be as difficult. “It’s a short stage, but it can be nervous with an arrival at the top, but not as long of a climb as the final one today. We’ll have to stay vigilant and try to get any opportunities we can.”
Earlier in Saturday’s stage, the BMC Racing Team formidably led Evans onto the lower slopes of the climb, which went on for 11.7 km at a nearly nine percent grade. Evans said he benefited from having teammate Tejay van Garderen at his side for the first half. “Tejay is really improving every day and we’re getting to know each other better,” Evans said. “I’m looking forward to racing the Tour de France with him.” Van Garderen went on to finish 13th, 1:12 behind the stage winner, and move into 10th overall.
