Evan was out of the team car and just off the massage table when we caught-up with him after the second stage of the Tour of Britain 2006 into Liverpool, won by GB man Roger Hammond.
Those hills didn’t do as much damage as we thought then?
“No, that’s true. Two Lotto guys (Belgians, Johan Van Summeren and Bert Roesems) jumped-away early and led over all three climbs. CSC seemed happy with that and just rode tempo on all three hills. I climbed them on 39 x 21 + 23 so it wasn’t too hard but even so, a few guys were dropped.”
What was your job today?
“It was to keep Ben Greenwood in a good position and out of the wind until the bottom of the first climb. I did that and he jumped away and solo-ed over all three between the two leaders and the bunch. He got third on all three climbs then sat-up. The game-plan is to try and take the jersey tomorrow.”
The race lead changed today didn’t it ?
“Yes, Goss (Aussie, Matt Goss now leads by a couple of seconds from stage one winner and first race-leader Martin Pedersen of CSC) took some bonuses to get the jersey but I can’t see CSC losing the race; they are just so strong and Goss didn’t look too comfortable on the climbs today. I don’t see how any body can take two and a half minutes back from Pedersen and CSC.”
What happened after the hills?
“CSC rode on the front virtually all the way. Unibet helped them; they would be defending for their Spanish guy (Luis Pasamontes) who is lying second overall.”
What was the finale like ?
“The last part of the stage was very flat, Robin Sharman from our team got away with the Danish guy Morkov at ten to go and they stayed away until three to go. It was a bit of an unusual finish, zig-zagging around a dual carriageway. Boonen was up-there with a kilometre to go but lost his line somewhere.”
What’s the script for tomorrow?
“We don’t have our team meet until the morning, so it’s not been decided yet but it will be to get Ben into the Mountains jersey. There’s one or two climbs early then it’s flat until the last 50 K when it’s very hard hills-wise.”
VeloVeritas will be talking to Evan after stage three.