GENEVA, May 1, 2011 – Australia’s Cadel Evans won the Tour de Romandie here on Sunday after the fifth and final stage was claimed by Team Sky’s British rider Ben Swift.

It was a second overall victory for the Australian BMC team rider after his previous success in 2006, and he admitted to feeling comfortable on Swiss soil.

“It’s a race I like, I’m alway happy to win here,” said Evans. “It’s important for us to make a good impression on home ground but also in terms of looking towards the Tour de France and other races of the year.

“Now I keep working towards the Dauphine but really my first objective is the Tour de France.”

“Any stage victory on the World Tour is hard, so certainly this is a big win,” Evans said. “It’s a bit strange to have won the overall and not to have won a stage. But I got a bit unlucky at the finish in Romont, and in the time trial when the wind conditions were a bit unfavorable to the later starters. But certainly, in a couple days when I have time to look back, I’ll be very, very satisfied with the season so far.” The former world road champion also won one stage and the overall at Tirreno-Adriatico in March.

Evans finished 18sec ahead of German HTC-Columbia rider Tony Martin, with Kazakh Alexandr Vinokourov of the Astana team in third.

The final stage was won by Swift in a sprint finish.

“It was perfect, I really like the course this year,” Swift said. “I sensed I’d be climbing quite well this year. My team did a brilliant job, they guided me the whole day, they protected me.”

Stage
1. Ben Swift (GBR/SKY) 3hr 50min 51sec, 2. Davide Vigano (ITA) same time,
3. Oscar Freire (ESP) s.t., 4. Fabio Sabatini (ITA) s.t., 5. Enrico Gasparotto
(ITA) s.t., 6. Fumiyuki Beppu (JPN) s.t., 7. Tony Martin (GER) s.t., 8.
Nicolas Roche (IRL) s.t., 9. Yukyia Arashiro (JPN) s.t., 10. Enrique Sanz
Unzue (ESP) s.t.

Overall standings
1. Cadel Evans (AUS/BMC) 16hr 51min 49sec, 2. Tony Martin (GER) at 18sec,
3. Alexandre Vinokourov (KAZ) 19, 4. Marci Pinotti (ITA) 31, 5. Benat
Intxausti (ESP) 41, 6. Pieter Weening (NED) 51, 7. Janez Brajkovic (SLO) 52,
8. Pavel Brutt (RUS) 58, 9. Andrew Talansky (USA) 59, 10. David Millar (GBR)
1:00
Selected: 14. Denis Menchov (RUS) 1:16, 19. Marcel Wyss (SUI) 1:24, 21.
Simon Spilak (SLO) 1:30, 31. Ivan Basso (ITA) 3:03, 32. David Zabriskie (USA)
3:06