Sciandri: Time trial will offer first clear sign of Evans' form

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BMC’s Max Sciandri says that he and his team will know a lot more about Cadel Evans’ chances in the Giro d’Italia after the time trial on stage 8. The Tour de France 2011 winner was a relatively late addition to BMC’s Giro line-up, and despite the team’s relatively below-expectations team time trial, is performing well, lying 10th overall, 42 seconds down.

“His condition is good. Cadel came into the Giro a bit late but as ever, he’s really prepared properly for it even in the shorter time available,” Sciandri told Cyclingnews at the start of stage six, “and he’s done the recons he could. He’s also managed to pull back a lot of the time he lost at the team time trial in the later stages, and that’s good.”

“The individual time trial will give him a reference point. It’s the same for everybody: it tells a rider where he’s at, where he wants to go, whether it’s better or worse form than he thought.”

Sciandri describes the time trial course as “typical Giro. I’ve driven it and it’s very demanding, technical, quite hard and with some nasty climbs and descents. It’s going to test everybody a lot.”

“For sure we will get something out of it, and be able to see where we’re heading with Cadel.”

Sciandri warns, though, that the "Tirreno-Adriatico" style stage through the hilly Abruzzo region on Friday will offer also chance for a GC shakeup as well - as the stage through the regions did in Italy’s second biggest stage race this March, where Vincenzo Nibali took the lead. “It’s really hard all day, very difficult terrain. The guys who did Tirreno know what it’s like and it’s going to do some real damage.”