Cadel Evans (BMC) was unable to stay with Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) when the race leader accelerated on the steep slopes of the Jafferau climb near the finish of today's first battle in the Alps in the Giro d'Italia. With bonus seconds also coming into play the Australian lost 45 seconds on a day that he hopes will be his worst in this year's Giro.

Cadel Evans started today's first Alpine stage in the Giro d'Italia as the only rider less than a minute behind overall leader Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and appeared to be his closest challenger for the overall win. However, the Australian had to concede more time on the final Jafferau climb and ended the day now 1.26 behind the Italian.

Evans is usually one of the most consistent riders in the peloton who rarely has a bad day but today the BMC leader wrote his time loss down to just that. Taking this into account, he certainly managed to limit his losses considerably and the Australian now hopes that this was the only time in the race for him to experience that.

"It was not my best day," he said. "Conceding time to the other GC contenders is certainly not what I wanted. I just couldn't react when the attack from Nibali came. I think that has something to do with the last couple of days. I hope this is my worst day in the mountains; otherwise to fight for the win will be difficult."

The stage was a hard one due to the bad weather and race organizers even had to cancel the climb up to Sestriere. Evans praised his team's efforts to keep him protected throughout a very difficult day.

"But everybody on the team, from mechanics and staff to the riders – put in everything," he said. "You can't ask anything more than that."

While Evans appeared to be disappointed to lose time in the battle for the overall win, sports director Fabio Baldato was more focused on the prospects of a possible podium finish. He was happy to see the Australian only lose 3 seconds to his nearest rival from behind, Rigoberto Uran (Sky).

"Cadel is still there," he said. "For me, he did a great job to stay close to Nibali and Santambrogio. Today, they were stronger. He only lost a few seconds to Uran. So for the moment, we are happy and we are confident."

Evans will get an immediate opportunity to take back some time in tomorrow's big stage to the top of the Col du Galibier. The stage was about to get cancelled or severely altered but will now go on almost as planned.

Starting at 12.45 you can follow the stage in its entirety on CyclingQuotes.com/live.