calling a temporary halt to the racing on the descent. As riders brought Evans back from his predicament to rejoin the bunch, they saluted 's car as they crossed the convoy to thank them for the gesture of sportsmanship. Evans dropped out of contention on stage 16, where he lost contact with the leaders on the penultimate climb, was paced back by teammates on the descent only to be dropped again on the Col de Peyresourde. He slipped to seventh overall, and behind van Garderen. Evans lost further time on the last time trial to Chartres, where he was overtaken on the road by van Garderen, despite setting out three minutes ahead of him; he cited illness to explain his performance. He finished the Tour in seventh position, 15 minutes and 49 seconds down on winner Wiggins and stated that he would be back as BMC's leader in 2013. Evans was selected in the Australian teams for the road race and time trial at the London Olympics. However, after making no impact in the road race, Evans withdrew from the time trial citing fatigue. A couple of weeks later, he cancelled his scheduled participation to the Québec and Montréal World Tour races, stating that he was putting an end to his 2012 racing season because he was exhausted and did not want to compromise his 2013 campaign. 2013 Evans' 2013 season came to a good start after finishing third in the Tour of Oman in presence of a strong field. His strategy that year was to ride both the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France. In April, he placed eighth in the Giro del Trentino, a short stage race he rode in preparation for the Italian Grand Tour. The Giro d'Italia featured cold and wet weather, leading Bicycling magazine to call it "one of the more grueling Grand Tours in recent memory." Despite the difficulties, Evans was posted in second position for a long time behind overall classification leader Vincenzo Nibali. He lost his second place on the last mountain stage, climbing to Tre Cime di Lavaredo, which was hindered by snowfall. He still managed to finish third in the general classification. Evans was the designated leader of his team in the Tour de France, but he encountered major difficulties as he was constantly dropped from the leading group in mountainous stages. His teammate Tejay van Garderen sacrificed his