Cadel Evans of the BMC Racing Team assumed the overall lead at the Giro d’Italia Sunday following a crash-filled stage that claimed one of the world champion’s teammates, Martin Kohler.

Back In Pink
Evans now leads by one second over the winner of Stage 2, Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions). The world champion is in the “maglia rosa” for the second time in his career. In 2002, Evans briefly held the race lead before finishing 14th overall. “I think you need to be good from the start to the finish of any three-week Tour,” Evans said. “But also I’m the rider who lost the Tour de France by 23 seconds, so maybe I look at it differently than most GC riders do.”

Kohler Breaks Collarone
The BMC Racing Team suffered a crucial loss when Kohler abandoned after breaking his collarbone. The Swiss and teammate Michael Schär went down in a pile-up with 42 kilometers to go in the 209 km race. Mauro Santambrogio and Florian Stalder (crashes) and John Murphy (flat tire) were also held up in separate incidents in the final kilometers. “Today was one of the most ridiculously dangerous and nervous stages I have ridden in my entire career,” Evans said. “I don’t know why everyone was so nervous today. Maybe it’s a little bit of inexperience or something where you take a Grand Tour group and put it on these roads which are a little bit more of the Classics guys’ environment.”

Strategy Looking Ahead
BMC Racing Team Director Sportif John Lelangue said he was not expecting Evans to have the race lead so soon in the 21-day race, “but the most important point is taking time from other contenders,” he said. “We want to be in the first group every day and not to lose time and then come into the last 10 days in good position. That’s always the objective of the team.”