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Key moments

stage 2 - Porto-Vecchio Porto-Vecchio 6.5 km
Saturday 24 March

Evans in winning fashion

Tour de France 2011 champion Cadel Evans captured his first win of the season on stage 2 of the Criterium International: a 6km individual time-trial. The Australian beat compatriot Micheal Rogers by 0.28 of a second while Simon Geschke finished third, a second adrift. Evans captures the overall leader’s yellow jersey that he’ll be defending on tomorrow’s final mountain stage.

After a first stage slightly troubled by a covered sky, the clouds had totally disappeared for the second episode of the Criterium International: a 6-kilometre individual time-trial around Porto Vecchio.

Not in the morning’s decisive breakaway, Frenchman Anthony Roux was the first to shine on this solo effort. The FDJ-Bigmat rider, winner of a stage on the Vuelta back in 2009, clocked a first best time of 7’23.

His time was eventually beaten by one of the big names of the pack, Tour de France 2011 winner Cadel Evans (BMC). The Australian set an excellent time of 7’21, enough to show his fine form at this period of the year. And enough to capture his first win of the season, only just beating another Aussie, Micheal Rogers (SKY) by 0’28 and Simon Geschke (PRO) by 1’.

In the good breakaway this moning, Evans also captures the overall leader’s Yellow Jersey that he’ll be defending tomorrow on the very demanding mountain stage heading to the Col de l’Ospedale. And what a battle it promises to be, indeed the leading ten riders are all within 9".