Cadel Evans believes Richie Porte’s duel leadership role with Tejay van Garderen may cause tensions

TOUR de France champion Cadel Evans has forecast tension at former team BMC as Richie Porte and Tejay van Garderen prepare to jostle for leadership.

Legendary cyclist Cadel Evans talks about his Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. Picture: David Caird.

TOUR de France champion Cadel Evans has forecast tension at former team BMC as Richie Porte and Tejay van Garderen prepare to jostle for outright leadership.

Porte left Team Sky in search of more Grand Tour opportunities, but the Tasmanian sprang a surprise by joining an American team led by an American GC contender.

BMC manager Jim Ochowicz insists Porte and van Garderen can form a harmonious “1-2 punch”, but how the pair work together while chasing individual glory will be an intriguing subplot next season.

Evans, who won the Tour in 2011, rode with van Garderen in the 2012, 2013 and 2014 editions of the race before retiring in January.

Asked if a co-leadership policy could work at BMC, Evans told the Herald Sun: “I don’t know Richie very well, but I do know Tejay.”

Pushed on whether van Garderen would be accepting of such a strategy, he said: “I don’t know. I’ll have to wait and see.

“It will probably give you a bit to talk about. It’s one of the things you’ll be able to follow with interest next year.”

Evans said Porte’s ex-teammate Chris Froome can become the first rider since Spaniard Miguel Indurain in 1994-95 to win back-to-back Tours.

Cadel Evans won the Tour de France while racing for the BMC team.

“For him I think it’s possible,” he said.

“He’ll be the only rider in this era who’ll be able to go back-to-back, barring illness and injury.”

It feels absurd to describe Evans as a weekend warrior, particularly when he looks as lean as he did when he stood atop the podium on the Champs Elysees on that history-making day for Australian sport back in 2011. But comfortable in retirement, it’s not far from the truth.

“I ride in a month what I used to do in a week as a pro rider,” he said.

“It’s just the time thing. Your life switches from being geared around training and racing to other things and you fit in the riding when you can.

“I try to stay fit. I started running after racing. I just jog along, there’s no hidden talent there. I run like I’m pedalling I think.”

But he can still “push a few watts” and has hooked up with an old coach for an unprecedented 12-month study into the effects of de-training on an elite athlete at Italy’s Mapei Sport Centre.

“It’s been good to give something back to the world of sports science and physiology after all the help it’s given me over the years,” he said.

“At least once every two months I’m in the lab pushing myself so it keeps the motivation going.”

Off the bike he’s “kept busy and stayed challenged”, working as an ambassador for BMC, getting satisfaction from promoting a healthy lifestyle and giving his time to charities and various Gran Fondo’s.

“My main thing was to stay busy because if you’re just at home thinking about what you did and what you should do, it would be different,” he said.

Based in the Swiss town of Stabio, he’s returned briefly to Barwon Heads to continue preparations for his Spring Classic-like Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race on January 31.

The race will next week reveal a head-turning line-up of World Tour teams.

“We’ve got some exciting riders coming. There’s been a bit of a change in the way riders prepare for the races and the early season has become really important,” Evans said.

“If we can keep putting on a good quality event we’re going to get the good riders and we’re going to have good racing. The more people on the side of the road the greater the ambience and the better the event. “