World road race champion Cadel Evans has named former Silence Lotto team-mate Philippe Gilbert as the rider who he expects to be the big favourite when the pros fight it out for the rainbow jersey in two and a half week’s time.
“There will be a small group racing for the line,” he told Lotto Cycling TV. “Gilbert is the man to beat.”
Evans has the chance to take back to back victories and, even better, can do so on home soil. However his preparation has been far from ideal, with the BMC Racing Team rider only recently returning to racing after sustaining a broken elbow in the Tour de France.
The injury means that he will head to Australia with less racing kilometres than last year, when he finished third overall in the Vuelta a España. He’s hoping that his enthusiasm and determination can make up for that, saying that he was fully motivated for the Worlds.
"I have been out for a while because of my broken arm after the Tour,” he said. “If you're injured, your motivation grows. If you can cycle again, you are more eager.
“Obviously I would like to become my repeat performance of last year. But that's easier said than done. I have a couple of weeks until then, but I am satisfied with my current condition.”
Elbow injury aside, Evans would not have been able to do the Vuelta a España as his team didn’t apply to take part in it. The squad is a growing one, but accepts that it doesn’t have the firepower yet to ride three Grand Tours in one season. Evans did the Giro and the Tour and, like his team, never intended going to the Spanish Tour.
Each of the recent winners of the worlds have taken part in the three week race and so it remains to be seen if he will have the condition to challenge this time ride. Evans has a programme of Belgian and French races as he nears the time to fly to Australia, and thinks that these will help him be in strong condition. “I like to do these races, because they are more like the Geelong course,” he said. “They are also hard races, which I need.”