Cycling great Cadel Evans won't be rushed on retirement decision - right now he's focused on the 2014 Santos Tour Down Under

CADEL Evans won't make a call on his future until after this year's Giro d'Italia but his ambitions suggest he is far from a spent force.

CADEL Evans won't make a call on his racing future until after this year's Giro d'Italia but his physical condition and bold ambitions suggest he is far from a spent force.

Three weeks shy of his 37th birthday, Evans is not quite Benjamin Button - the fictitious movie character who ages in reverse - but on Monday said he was desperate to return to the level or close to that which won him the 2011 Tour de France.

The BMC Racing Team leader starts Tuesday's Santos Tour Down Under as one of three Australians favoured to win the ochre jersey along with Simon Gerrans and Richie Porte.

"My main thing is to get back to my top level, whether that's 2011 level or one or two per cent less," he said.

"Ever since I was 20 I didn't want to retire from the sport having any regrets, in terms of not having tried or worked harder.

"But at the same time I wouldn't want to retire early and six months down the track thinking 'I could be there at the front beating those guys'.

"I certainly want to be back at my best and if I can't be at the highest level, I don't know if I want to be doing this job."

Evans arrived in Adelaide last week looking lean and tanned - evidence of a strong pre-season - and his relaxed demeanour in public and at media appearances suggest he is happy with where he is at.

"It's always better when you're relaxed, it's when things are going wrong that people get nervous," he said.

In the final year of his BMC contract which he extended after winning the Tour de France, Evans said he would like to "do a good Giro and use that as an indicator for the future".

If he rides on, he may target Ardennes Classic Liege-Bastogne-Liege but only if it fits with the team's plans.

"We have quite a strong Classics team in terms of (Philippe) Gilbert and so on," Evans said.

"I don't know if that's a place the team would require of me.

"I would like to do something better with the Ardenne Classics, particularly Liege (Bastogne-Liege), but I always considered myself a part-time one-day rider (in the past)."

In a wide-ranging interview yesterday, Evans admitted he had a hard time regrouping after the 2011 Tour de France which he says he may never race again.

"When you've worked for something that takes so long, when it happens you're like 'now what do I do?'

"(In 2014) the team asked me to focus on the Giro and that's what instigated the change.

"That's probably a good thing because I'm too emotionally attached sometimes to some of these things to make rational decisions."

Evans joked that in modern cycling, he now spends as much time at his computer as he does on his bike.

And the other difference between 36-year-old Evans compared to 10 years ago are other demands away from the bike.

"Twenty-six-year-old Cadel could go out and train and didn't have anyone or anything to hold him up," he said.

"Thirty-six, 37-year-old Cadel has a few things holding him up - expectations, public and that sometimes detracts from being able to focus in the end on what really matters.

"When I was 26 no one seemed to mind so much what I was doing."