Cadel Evans changed his usual race programme this season to make the Giro d’Italia his main objective of 2014. Even though after a splendid beginning in January the BMC captain struggled to deliver equally respectable results in Europe, 37-year old insists he has undergone proper preparations and treats mountainous Giro del Trentino as a final dress rehearsal ahead of the Italian grand tour.

Lining up alongside one of Astana captains, Michele Scarponi, at the Giro del Trentino pre-race press conference., Evans claimed to be enthusiastic in front of an opportunity to test his disposition ahead of the Giro d’Italia on a very similar route consisting of three mountain stages and team time trial.

"I'm here to work for my first big goal of the season: the Giro d'Italia. The Giro del Trentino is always a good way to test your form for the Giro thanks to the mountains and the TTT. It's a dress rehearsal for BMC this year," Evans said referring to the BMC roster for the Giro, as their classic unit is already doing extremely well in Northern Europe.

Evans enjoyed an almost perfect beginning of the 2014 season as he finished runner-up to flying Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) twice, at the Australian national championships and Santos Tour Down Under respectively, taking one stage victory in the year’s first WorldTour event.
 

As it happens very often, the 37-year old Australian struggled to maintain his brilliant disposition through first months of the European season, pulling out of the Tirreno-Adriatico ahead of its final time trial with a time loss to Alberto Contador already exceeding thirty minutes. However, the former Tour de France champion bounced back with an unspectacular yet very solid performance at the Vuelta al Pais Vasco, finishing its queen stage within the top ten and eventually seventh in the general classification.

"I started the season almost with a win at the Tour Down Under. I couldn't hold that form when I came back to Europe but it was important to stay healthy and do some hard work. I was where I wanted to be at Pais Vasco. I didn't go close to victory but I feel I'm getting there," he explained.

This will be a test of my climbing in the big mountains. I'll be looking for results. I'm sure Scarpa (Scarponi) will be a favourite but so will the others."

Even though Evans won’t be ragerded as a main favorite to take the spoils in this year’s edition of the Giro d’Italia, it wouldn’t be wise to rule out some good showing from the 37-year old Australian as he treats the Italian event as a main objective this season, abandoning his usual Tour de France ambitions.

Thus, the BMC captain expressed his satisfaction with a final opportunity to test his own legs and squad for the Giro in a race of very similar characteristics, consisting of three mountain stages and team time trial on an opening day.

Yannick Eijssen, Brent Bookwalter, Steve Morabito and Daniel Oss will line up with Evans as a part of BMC roster for the Giro d’Italia, while youngsters Rick Zabel and Sebastian Lander received an opportunity to gain experience in the Italian four-day event.

The 37-year old Australian pointed out that even though the team time trial is an important test ahead of the showing in the Italian grand tour, he expect the time gaps to be rather insignificant and thus the race to be decided on the Monte Bondone mountaintop finish on Friday.

"With all the mountain finish on the other three stages, the time gaps in the team time trial could be something or nothing. But I think we'll see small gaps. For us it'll be an important test for the Giro d'Italia TTT."