Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) had hoped for a strong performance at the Tour of Romandie, where he was defending champion, but in the end, the Australian had to settle for 29th overall, 2:07 back of winner, Bradley Wiggins (Sky).

He shouldn't be upset though, having recently recovered from a sinus infection. Evans tried to make nice performances on the toughest stages in Switzerland, he did quite well, but still not as good as he had hoped for.

"It's been an interesting course – hard yet not selective," he said ahead of the stage. "The hard climbs have been a little distance from the finish which allows groups to come back and were finishing in a not-so-small group every day and a lot of riders were on the same time."

Ahead of the final stage, the time trial, Evans was 30 seconds behind the race leader, Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank). Wiggins was in second place, nine seconds behind the Spaniard.

Evans is usually a strong time trialist, but yeterday he wasn't the BMC rider who finished the best. Instead Johann Tschopp was 1:29 back of stage winner Wiggins. Evans finished 1:45 back on the uphill time trial.

"With a time trial like this, I was just guessing after I rode the course this morning, we'd have time gaps something like you'd have on an l'Alpe d'Huez time trial," he continued. "So we had close racing all week and then we come to a selective time trial in the final [stage] which made for an interesting last day."

Evans dropped out of Amstel Gold Race earlier this month, and did not participate in the remaining Ardennes Classics. Instead, he wanted to focus on recovering in time for Tour de Romandie.

"I'm sorry I didn't have a bit more strength to put on the course and to put on the results sheet but we'll see what my ride does for today," he said.

"When you come here with the number one on your back, like I came here to Romandie, you come to win here. Unfortunately, things haven't been going so well for me this year for reasons a little bit beyond my control. But now things are coming together, which – going toward July and August – is probably more and more important for my year overall.

"I would have liked to have done more to be honest..."