place, 50 minutes and 27 seconds behind Alberto Contador. 2011 Evans had a much more successful start to 2011, winning stage 4 and the general classification at Tirreno–Adriatico, and the general classification at the Tour de Romandie, both of which formed part of the UCI World Tour. Skipping the Giro d'Italia, Evans prepared for the Tour de France by finishing as runner-up in the Criterium du Dauphine, one of the major Tour warm up events. This was the fourth consecutive Dauphine that Evans entered where he finished in 2nd. Evans finished second on stage one of the Tour de France, and won stage 4, the third Tour de France stage win of his career. Evans then led the mountains classification after stage 4 for a single day. As the Tour de France continued Evans was looked upon often to chase down breakaways in order to preserve his position in the top 5 of the general classification and in order to maintain time gaps that he believed he could strategically make up in the individual time trial of stage 20. During stage 19, Evans was forced to chase an early breakaway containing the general classification contenders and led by Alberto Contador, who at the time was seeking his 4th Tour de France win. However, he experienced mechanical trouble and was forced to change bikes. He again led the peloton to pull back the contender group, keeping himself within striking distance for overall victory by remaining just under a minute behind Andy Schleck. On the time trial, the last stage before Paris, Evans took the lead of the general classification by 1' 34" after finishing close second in the stage, beating previous race leader Schleck by 2' 31". With the win he became the first Australian to win the Tour de France, the second non-European to have officially won it, and the oldest to win the overall general classification in the post-war era. Evans' win elicited much celebration in his home nation with calls for a national holiday as his win was compared to that of the 1983 America's Cup which was considered Australia's greatest sporting achievement. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard phoned to congratulate Evans saying that "I do want to say a very big congratulations to Cadel Evans. I had the opportunity this morning to speak and to personally offer my congratulations. I believe I disturbed him while he was