Cadel Evans comes third in stage three

Australian world cycling champion Cadel Evans has already performed far better than
expected at the Tour Down Under, finishing third in a brutally-hard stage three.
Evans made the most of his opportunities in the 132.5km stage from the Adelaide
suburb of Unley to the Hills town of Stirling.
Portuguese national champion Manuel Cardoso also surprised by winning the stage,
while Spanish star Alejandro Valverde blew his big chance and had to settle for
second.
Lance Armstrong was 30th and German Andre Greipel finished 23rd to keep his overall
lead.
Evans improved from 38th to seventh overall, 16 seconds behind Greipel, but is still
unlikely to challenge for the overall win.
The temperature had reached 38 degrees in Adelaide by the time the hilly, windy
stage finished.
"It was a bit of a strange old day, harder than expected, hot as you know, hard from
the start, pretty windy," Evans said.
"The last few kilometres were like racing in slow motion, everyone was so exhausted.
"When I saw the leadouts going - Sky, Rabobank - as soon as they started to
accelerate they all blew. I was just following the guys through.
"I was on Graeme Brown with 700m to go and he just went into the wind and stopped
completely.
"It's not often I get into the last km with Robbie McEwen, like never."
Evans's main priority this week has been to start working with his new team BMC -
results were not his priority.
It is an encouraging sign as the first Australian to win the men's elite road race
title builds up to the May Tour of Italy, the July Tour de France and his world
title defence in October.
"Like I said, get things going and see how it goes - being too good here is only
going to compromise May, July and October, so let's stay calm," he said.
Cardoso (Footon Servetto) is riding in his first ProTour event and was smart at the
finish, capitalising on the strong work done by Valverde's Caisse d'Epargne team.
Valverde hesitated in the closing stages as Cardoso went clear for the win.
Caisse d'Epargne's Australian manager Neil Stephens said that was the best chance
for Valverde, the reigning Tour of Spain champion, to win a stage this week.
"The boys were great - it's January, they're working really well," Stephens said.
"Alejandro went physically well today, but he had a moment's hesitation and a great
champion can't have that."
Unlike the first two days, no breaks were allowed to go clear because the peloton
was nervous about the two laps of the tough finishing circuit at Stirling.
Greipel's HTC Columbia worked hard for him and the 2008 Tour champion maintained a
14-second lead over Team Sky rider Greg Henderson of New Zealand.
The race continues on Friday with the 149.5km fourth stage from suburban Norwood to
Goolwa, south of Adelaide.