Cadel Evans won't race the 2009 Giro d'Italia

6 comments
By Cyclingnews.com | Friday, Dec 12, 2008 4.42pm

Cadel Evans will not ride the Giro d'Italia and has accused race organisers RCS Sport of falsely using his name to promote its event.

On Wednesday it was announced that Evans would ride the three-week Italian stage race, adding his name to a list of overall favourites that includes Lance Armstrong, Ivan Basso and Carlos Sastre. Evans, who is currently in Australia preparing another assault on the Tour de France, denied the claims.

"I didn't announce I would be riding the Giro, the organisers did. I am not riding the Giro next year, my focus will be on winning the Tour de France in July," Evans said. "They announced I would be riding because they want publicity for their race. I have never said I would ride the Giro."

Evans said the Giro d'Italia has been the furthest thing from his mind since returning to the saddle two weeks ago. After a short off-season lay off, the runner-up in the past two editions of the Tour has been solely focused on preparing his body for July.

He listed Alberto Contador, ahead of Armstrong, as the biggest obstacle between himself and overall victory at the Tour next year, and said combating a star-studded Astana team would be difficult.

He was disappointed with a lack of off-season signings for his own Silence-Lotto squad, following the termination of new signing Bernard Kohl's contract after he tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug CERA and the loss of team-mate Yaroslav Popovych. He said there is still the potential for one or two more signings, but is not overly optimistic.

"Most of the top riders have signed contracts by now, which makes it hard, but we will be looking to get a couple more signings before the season starts," he said.

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User Comments

There are 6 comments on this post

Showing 1 - 6 of 6 comments

  • moaning again!

    what a w@nker

  • Keep your negative comments to yourself, he is just saying it how it is. Freedom of speech (bit ironic I tell you to keep your comments to yourself, but nobody needs to, or cares to hear them)

  • Jeeeeses Mate!! What a winger! Are you sure eee ain't a Pomme????

  • Pommees are used to winning on bikes now, so I'm pretty sure he aint a pommee. Just a whinging wheelsucking bad-loser of an Aussie with an over inflated view of his own importance. Like the Giro needs his name to get publicity ... some bloke from America has sorted their PR for next years race already ... hasn't Cadel heard the news?

    He lets down his country where the athletes generally have a lot more sporting grace (even if some parts of the media and the fans don't).

  • he is a tosser right enough and he'll never win the tour 'cos he can't tt worth a crap and his team are s4it!

  • I will never forget on the last tour when he was number one on competition, he stated that all his hommies back in Austie could start celebrating all they wanted but that he still had work to do and how he was crying. The guy was cool until he opened his mouth, pathetic!

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