Cadel Evans broke an almost 2-year drought on European soil when he won today's hard third stage of the Giro del Trentino, and again proved that he is fully ready for his big goal at the Giro d'Italia. The Australian was pleased to put two years of suffering behind him and prove that he is still going strong despite being 37 years old.

BMC Racing Team's Cadel Evans won Thursday's stage of the Giro del Trentino and increased his overall lead with one day of the race to go. Evans earned his second victory of the season by pulling away with an attack in the last kilometer of the uphill finish of the 184.4-km race.

Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale) finished second, three seconds later, followed by Mikel Landa and Michele Scarponi (both of Astana Pro Team) nine seconds later. The past Tour de France winner and world road champion now leads Pozzovivo by 45 seconds and Tiago Machado (NetApp-Endura) by 59 seconds with another mountain-top finish looming at the end of Friday's 175-km stage.

"I counted on the team all the way until really the last climb with two-and-a-half kilometers to go," Evans said. "Martin Kohler, Daniel Oss, Steve Morabito, Brent Bookwalter, Sebastian Lander and Rick Zabel were really good. They did all the work until the third last climb.

"Then Brent and Yannick (Eijssen) and Steve took over and put me in a good position for the stage. Then it was up to me. That's what you get for being patient and working hard.

"Today the stage was tough and aggressive but I made it thanks to excellent team work. The finale was a lot harder than shown on paper and tomorrow will be even more challenging. In the GC everything can happen but I'm already satisfied with the good indications that I'm having in view of the Giro. 

"I find the motivation by people saying I'm a year older. But age is just a number that I'm sometimes judged on. But I think people can see that I'm still motivated to race. I've still got the same love for the sport, the same desire to do well and the same passion as when I was 25. Now perhaps my experience helps me. There's nothing I can do about my age, it goes up for everyone. I just don't think about it, even if I won't be racing at a high level when I'm 40.

"I'm happy to give it everything for the Giro d'Italia for now. I might be sad when I have to watch the Tour on television but for ten years my whole life rotated around the Tour de France. But to win the Tour, you need the support of everyone: yourself, the team, the sponsors and everyone behind you. If you don't have that, it's almost a waste of time doing it.

"The team decided that I wasn't doing the Tour and that I should focus on the Giro. I didn't have a lot of choice but I accepted it and realised that it was a weight off my shoulders. Ten years is a long time and fortunately I managed to win one Tour, so I have to be satisfied with that.

"I've thought back to my first Giro d'Italia in 2002 and I wanted to come back and prepare properly for it really well. We've got a strong team backing me and I hope to do well.

With a fourth-place finish on Wednesday's stage, Evans had assumed the lead from teammate Daniel Oss after the BMC Racing Team won Tuesday's Stage 1 team time trial. Controlling Thursday's stage was not easy, BMC Racing Team Sport Director Fabio Baldato said.

"The race was really hard and there were so many attacks at one moment that the guys decided to let a group of 11 go," he said. "But I saw our team was strong mentally. They were really focused and motivated.

"Cadel did an amazing final. He did that because he saw the team was really strong all day and really organized."

Evans said he remains focused on conserving his lead on the verge of winning his first multi-day race since the 2012 Critérium International.

"It is important for us to think about the GC (general classification) and what we have to do as a team and what I have to do with that as an individual," he said.