Cadel Evans (Silence Lotto) nears the end of a frustrating Tour de France(Image credit: Sirotti)
Australia's Cadel Evans spoke of his autumn schedule on Sunday in Paris following a disappointing performance in the Tour de France. He hopes to take the world championship title September 27 in Mendrisio, Switzerland.
"My next race is probably going to be the Vuelta [a España]. I will ride some of it in preparation for the Worlds. It is only six kilometres from my home and is a pretty hard course," said Evans.
The Vuelta a España three-week race takes place August 29 to September 20. Evans finished fourth overall in 2007.
The World Championships is one week after the Vuelta a España. Evans placed fifth in the 2007 World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany. This year's course will be more demanding than the last two years with two climbs, the Acqua Fresca and the Novazzano, included in a 13.8-kilometre circuit that will be repeated 19 times.
Evans should end his season at Italy's Giro di Lombardia, which is also close to his European home in Switzerland. He placed fourth in 2004 and sixth in 2007.
"I am going to go away [from the Tour], have a bit of a holiday and then plan for 2010," he said. Evans has been with the Belgium's Silence-Lotto team since 2005 and has one more year left in his contract.
Prior to this year Evans had never finished the Tour outside of the top ten, the last two years he placed second and wore the leader's yellow jersey for five days. At this year's event he finished 30th, 45:24 down on winner Alberto Contador. Evans' teammate Jurgen Van den Broeck finished 15th.
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His first disappointment in this year's Tour came on day four in Montpellier, when his Silence-Lotto team lost 2:35 in the team time trial.
"It did not help, but you do what you can in those days and make the most of it. I have always been one to adapt and fit in, to make opportunities for myself in the Tour. That was my first negative sign in the Tour."
Evans lost more time on the key mountain stages, including nearly 30 minutes on stage 17 to Le Grand-Bornand and 5:45 on the penultimate day to Mont Ventoux.
"I had a couple of bad days on the really hard days. You can bang your head for so long and something is going to break, it is not usually the bricks."
Evans took stage wins earlier in the season at the Coppi e Bartali and Dauphiné Libéré. The World championships will be a chance for Evans to make up for the Tour's disappointments. He won the junior mountain bike world championship in 1995.
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