Evans seals overall Giro del Trentino victory

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Cadel Evans (BMC) won his first stage race since the 2012 Critérium International with a strong and intelligent ride on the final mountain finish of the Giro del Trentino. The Australian kept a close eye on his rivals, while allowing Astana's Mikel Landa to ride away to claim the stage victory.

The stage win was Landa's second as a professional, after winning a stage of the Vuelta a Burgos in 2011. He joined the WorldTour with Euskaltel-Euskadi in 2011 and moved across to the Astana squad after the team dissolved.

The Basque climber surged in the final 3km, catching up to and passing the young South African champion Louis Meintjes (MTN-Qhubeka), and then holding a 10 second lead through to the line. Italian Franco Pellizotti tried and failed to bridge across to the attackers, but held off the Evans group for third on the day.

Evans distanced his nearest rival Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R-La Mondiale) in the difficult finale, choosing to mark podium challenger Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida) in the last part of the ascent. Pozzovivo lost five seconds, rather than closing down his deficit, but held onto second overall with an 11 second margin over Niemiec.

The previous third placed rider overall, Tiago Machado (NetApp-Endura) lost ground in the final kilometers and tumbled down the rankings to sixth behind Fabio Duarte (Colombia) and Meintjes.

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