Cadel Evans weathered a late storm to consolidate his Tirreno-Adriatico lead with an impressive victory in Monday's sixth stage of the Italian race.
The 34-year-old went into the penultimate stage with just a 2sec lead on Italy's Ivan Basso, and, riding without any teammates, found himself facing several attacks late in the 178km ride from Ussita to Macerata.
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The Australian, however, fought back every time a gap opened up, and even had to deal with some elbowing in the final kilometre with former teammate Philippe Gilbert, before pulling away from a select group in the final few hundred metres.
"It was quite something to take the overall leader's blue jersey on Sunday," said Evans, who was third in the 2010 edition.
"But to win the stage and keep the jersey today is absolutely brilliant.
"My plan was not to lose any time in the overall standings, but of course to gain some if the occasion presented itself, and it would be an advantage going into Tuesday's 9.3km time-trial)."
Basso dropped to third at 12secs behind his fellow Italian Michele Scarponi, second at 9, with Dutchman Robert Gesink in fourth at 15.
