Cadel Evans proved that he is a very serious winner candidate for the Giro d'Italia when he took over the overall lead in today's first mountain stage of the Giro del Trentino. Even tough the race mainly serves as preparation for the upcoming grand tour, the Australian will do his best to take a top result in this week's event.

BMC Racing Team's Cadel Evans finished fourth on Wednesday's mountain-top finish at the Giro del Trentino to assume the overall lead from teammate Daniel Oss. Evans and a small group chased solo stage winner Edoardo Zardini (Bardiani-CSF), who broke away midway up the final climb of the 164.5-kilometer race that finished in a mix of rain and sleet.

Evans arrived 19 seconds later – behind runner-up Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida) and Fabio Duarte (Colombia Cycling Team).

"To concede less seconds would have been better, but everyone was on their own in the final kilometers," Evans said. "With a hilltop finish and cold weather, it was a pretty hard finish for the first road stage. But it puts us in a good position.

"A bigger margin would be better, but most of all, it's a step toward the Giro d'Italia and for us as a team to go through the competition routine of holding and defending the jersey."

With two stages of the race to go – both featuring uphill finishes – Evans is nine seconds ahead of Zardini in the overall standings, with Niemiecis at 17 seconds and Duarte at 23 seconds. In all, 15 riders are within a minute of the lead, including Evans' teammate, Steve Morabito, who is eighth at 36 seconds.

"I have to look at the course details, but I guess tomorrow is more of the same," Evans said. "We will have to ride well as a team to control the breakaway during the stage. There is another selective finish and, of course, now I will be the rider that everyone will be looking to beat."

With Oss wearing the fuchsia jersey of race leader on Wednesday's stage, the BMC Racing Team spent much of the race on the front pulling back a three-man breakaway that led by nearly nine minutes at one point.

"Guys like Steve Morabito and Daniel Oss and Yannick Eijssen set a really good tempo for the first half of the climb," Evans said.

"I've still got room to improve. I need to take a few more steps forward for the Giro d'Italia but I'm starting to go better and that's encouraging. I needed it after the last few months and we deserved to keep the jersey.

"I'm here to work for Giro and I hope to do well there but this is good racing and so if I get some results, that's good too. I'm not going to throw this chance away and if I can put the team under pressure it’s a good way to get ready for the Giro d'Italia.

"I never say if I can win because I never stop trying to win. I'm going to take it day by day and sees what happens.

"This showed who will go well at the Giro, it's indicative of who will be trying to win the Giro. I saw that Aru was going well. He was impressive last year and he's good again this time.

"Scarponi looked good but is perhaps lacking racing after his training block. We'll see who else looks good on the other two stages. There's still a lot of hard racing to do here."