Evans wins Critérium International time trial

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Cadel Evans showed that his Tour de France preparations are back on track by taking out the 6.5km time trial in the Critérium International. The BMC captain won the stage by fractions of a second over Michael Rogers (Sky Procycling) and Simon Geschke (Project 1t4i).

The pair of Australians are now in a dead heat in the general classification with Geschke and RadioShack-Nissan's Maxime Monfort one and two seconds behind, respectively.

After a poor showing in Tirreno-Adriatico, Evans was pleased to show that he's progressing toward July.

"It's taken a while to get going this year, I didn't have the smoothest off season as I'd like to have, but that's OK," Evans said. "Victories are always welcome. Now tomorrow becomes much more interesting for me. I'm thinking of tomorrow and of course holding my place in the classification tomorrow evening."

Though he wasn't able to defend his title in Tirreno, Evans wasn't panicked about his build up towards his Tour de France defense.

"I'm always training toward my major objective of the year, and of course the Tour de France is my number one objective of the year. Sometimes you go through ups and downs as you're building up to a big event, and things are coming around a little better now."

Rogers, a three-time champion in the discipline, is coming off a nightmarish 2011 season in which illness and injury kept him out of competition for much of the year.

Evans said it was nice to see his compatriot back up there, but was glad to be the one coming out on top in a battle for fractions of a second. "Whenever you finish on the same second in a time trial, whether it's a win or a loss, sometimes it comes down to a bit of luck. I'm happy to be in front."

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