Cadel Evans weathered a late storm to consolidate his Tirreno-Adriatico lead with an impressive victory on stage six of the Italian race on Monday. Evans went into the penultimate stage with just a 2-second 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.
 
The Australian, however, fought back every time a gap opened up, and even had to deal with some elbow argy-bargy in the final kilometer with former teammate Philippe Gilbert, before pulling away from a select group in the final few hundred meters.
 
Ahead of Tuesday's final stage, a 9.3 km time trial, Basso dropped to third at 12-seconds behind his fellow Italian Michele Scarponi, second at 9-seconds back, with Dutchman Robert Gesink in fourth at 15-seconds down.