Cadel Evans proceeds to fourth position at the US Pro Cycling Challenge – Cycling Update
Tour de France 2011 winner Cadel Evans had a slow start at the US Pro Cycling Challenge during the 8.3 kilometre starting prologue of the race but finally did a good job to finish the race at 9th position. Evans finished the stage with only 8
seconds behind the Highroad cyclist Patrick Gretsch who won the opening stage of Vuelta a Espana 2011.
Evans mentioned that going downwards at the start of the race was never easy and he always finds it difficult to ride on such tracks and believes that he did a good effort in the end that earned him a position in top ten.
Evans commented on his website about the opening stage of the Vuelta as he wrote, “High (leg) speed, altitude acclimatization and a few risks in the corners were the ingredients for success....I was lacking a neat balance of all three.”
The BMC rider was seen pushing hard on the pedals and diving at the corners as he did took some calculated risks but he was mainly concerned about riding safe as he avoid taking any unnecessary chances.
Cadel missed out the training sessions and was not fully prepared for the Tour but he still managed to get a few days of training in Utah. He agreed that the organisers have worked really hard on the race and there are some really difficult climbs but he
is mainly concerned about the high altitudes more than anything else.
The Australian believes that the high altitudes will only help the cyclists who have raced in the Tour of Utah as he said, “the adopting to altitude is probably the biggest thing. We’re only talking three, four percent, but we’re only going for eight or
nine minutes, so two, three percent can make a difference in just the first kilometre or two."
The 34-year-old is currently 17 seconds behind the race leader with 7 points after the stage 1 general classifications as he finished the 159 kilometre first stage with a deficit of seven seconds behind Levi Leipheimer of Team RadioShack, who won the race
while Sergio Luis Henao Montoya of team Gobernacion De Antioquia at second and Frank Schleck of Leopard Trek at third position.
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