Evans concedes he can't beat Nibali in Giro Italian Vincenzo Nibali crosses the finish line of the 18th stage of the Giro d'Italia. Any hope that Cadel Evans had of reeling in Giro d'Italia race leader Vincenzo Nibali has dwindled further after Friday's 19th stage was cancelled due to snow along the route. Even before the stage cancellation Evans has conceded victory in the Giro d'Italia is probably beyond him. Evans' concession came after he lost more than 2½ minutes to the Italian in Thursday's mountain time trial. But the 36-year-old Australian and 2011 Tour de France champion is still second overall - albeit he faces a battle to defend it with only 10 seconds separating him from third place. I expected he would have gone better ... he was my rider of reference, so when I could see I was catching him, I pushed even harder," Nibali said. In the stage-18 time trial from Mori to Polsa, Evans slipped from being one minute, 26 seconds down on Nibali (Astana) to 4:02 behind. Also lurking to challenge Evans or Rigoberto Uran for a podium place is Italian Michele Scarponi (Lampre) in fourth at 5:14. The expected tussle could be put on hold for as much as 48 hours. The forecast of snow initially forced organisers to cut the famed Gavia (2618metres) and Stelvio (2758metres) climbs from stage 19. But as the weather got worse they cancelled the stage entirely. Saturday's stage 20 is also in doubt. Whatever happens Nibali is unlikely to falter. On Thursday, he was imperious in winning the time trial in a downpour, clocking 44minutes, 22 seconds. Second was Spaniard Samuel Sanchez (Euksaltel-Euskadi) at 58 seconds, followed by Italian Damiano Caruso (Lampre), third at one minute, 20 seconds. Scarponi was in fourth at 1:21, Poland's Rafal Majka fifth at 1:25 and Uran sixth 1:26. Evans was 25th at 2:36. It was soon clear after Evans started on the twisting route that had a steepest gradient of 10 per cent that he would not be challenging Nibali, which surprised the Italian. When I woke up and did a course inspection I knew I had good legs," he said. The important thing now is to defend the lead. Now we can breathe a little easier. Going for the overall win had motivated him, but he said he entered the Giro to find his best Tour form. "Being second in terms of what I had to do to get onto the results board, it's been pretty close to everything I have got," Evans said. I came here to come back to my best ... to recover lost days of racing due to this illness and so on last year.