Cadel Evans (BMC) had a difficult first day as leader of the Tour Down Under as biggest rival Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) managed to take back 5 seconds by virtue of bonus seconds. With only two stages favouring the climbers, Evans points out that the course suits his rivals better and he needs to do something special on tomorrow's queen stage to come away with the win.

Cadel Evans held onto the overall lead Friday at the Santos Tour Down Under, but saw his advantage over second-placed Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) reduced from 12 seconds to seven. Evans finished 13th on the day, in the same time as stage winner André Greipel, who won ahead of his Lotto Belisol teammate, Jurgen Roelandts, and Elia Viviani (Cannondale). Gerrans placed fourth but earned three bonus seconds by winning the first intermediate sprint and two more for finishing second on the other.

Evans always knew that he would be disadvantaged against the faster Gerrans in the intermediate sprints and had no match to the speed of his rival when Orica-GreenEDGE managed to keep things together for the two intermediate sprints. Things became even more complicated when he suffered a mechanical in the second one that nearly brought him down when he swerved to the left to stop for a bike change.

"It was a nervous day with the wind," he said. "Orica really took control of the race, putting the whole team on (the front) for the intermediate sprints. Obviously, the first one didn't go favorably for me; the second one went worse. That's really the element and especially for the first one I had the whole team there all ready to go and very well organized. Compliments to them."

Saturday's penultimate stage finishes up Old Willunga Hill, a three-kilometer climb with an average grade of 7.6 percent. In 2010, with Evans racing as the reigning world road champion, he finished third on the same stage, four seconds behind winner Luis Leon Sanchez. The stage is only the second out of six that suits the pure climbers after yesterday's showdown on the Corkscrew climb and Evans insists that the course doesn't do him many favours.

"I think everyone's going to be looking at Willunga," he said. "If I am going to win the race than I am certainly going to have to do something pretty special there. Looking at the numbers, we have four stages favorable to Orica and two for me. So it's not in my advantage. Willunga will be important. But certainly if Orica can go for intermediate sprints they can eat away at seven seconds pretty quickly.

"It’s certainly not my area of expertise and Simon is good in the sprints and has a very, very good team for that but we’ll see what happens on the way to Willunga," he added. "With the finish line at the top I think everyone is going to be looking at Willunga of course, and it goes back into my area of racing and experience."

Reconnaissance Was Helpful
Sport Director Fabio Baldato said the BMC Racing Team's reconnaissance of the stage proved valuable, particularly when a surge in speed and strong crosswinds split the peloton with about 50 km to go.

"We knew it was going to be difficult and technical," he said. "Orica went full gas to try to bring back the breakaway to do the second intermediate sprint. Tomorrow will be a little bit different with a tough finish and two more bonification sprints and then two more on Sunday."

BMC sports director Alan Peiper suggested that it could all come down to bonus seconds in the final criterium in Adelaide.

"Every second does count," he said. "We conceded a bit of time today. We still have seven seconds, in a bit of a buffer going into Willunga. With time bonuses atop Willunga at 10, 6 and 4, it's pretty much wide open. I think a lot of it will come down to intermediate sprints on the road, today and Sunday.

"It's going to be an exciting for the race. All in all, we got through the stage fine. There was quite of bit of work for his teammates to try to control the stage, but Willunga is going to be the critical day. A steeper climb would be better for Cadel, I don't know who it favours. It will be a showdown at the top of Willunga."

BMC continues to lead the teams classification in the race and also has Brent Bookwalter and Ben Hermans in 8th and 11th respectively.