Following a meagre 2013 season, Evans earned his second victory of the 2014 season by pulling away from his competitors with an attack in the last kilometer of the uphill finish of the 184.4 kilometer stage. Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale) finished second, three seconds behind Evans, followed by Team Astana's Mikel Landa and Michele Scarponi nine seconds later.

The past Tour de France winner and former world road champion now leads Pozzovivo by 45 seconds and Tiago Machado (Team NetApp-Endura) by 59 seconds with another mountain-top finish looming at the end of Friday's 175 kilometer stage.

"I counted on the team all the way until really the last climb with two-and-a-half kilometers to go," Evans explained to RoadCycling.com after being celebrated on the podium. "Martin Kohler, Daniel Oss, Steve Morabito, Brent Bookwalter, Sebastian Lander and Rick Zabel were really good. They did all the work until the third last climb. Then Brent and Yannick (Eijssen) and Steve took over and put me in a good position for the stage victory. Then it was up to me. That's what you get for being patient and working hard."

With a 4th place finish in yesterday's stage, Evans had taken the general classification lead from teammate Daniel Oss after the BMC Racing Team won Tuesday's team time trial.

Controlling today's stage was not easy, BMC Racing Team Sport Director Fabio Baldato said. "The race was really hard and there were so many attacks at one moment that the guys decided to let a group of eleven go," he said. "But I saw our team was strong mentally. They were really focused and motivated. Cadel did an amazing final. He did that because he saw the team was really strong all day and really organized."

Evans said he remains focused on preserving his general classification lead on the verge of winning his first stage race since the 2012 Critérium International. "It is important for us to think about the general classification and what we have to do as a team and what I have to do with that as an individual," he concluded.