In the twilight of a decorated career, Cadel Evans is gunning for a win in the Giro d'Italia

IN the twilight of a decorated career, Cadel Evans is training hard as he aims for victory in this year's Giro d'Italia.

Evans pictured ahead of last year's Tour de France.

IT WAS pouring rain and unseasonably cold even by Barwon Heads' unpredictable standards when Cadel Evans opened his front door for training last month.

With a team-issued BMC bike by his side, Evans dragged himself away from his family and onto the roads of Victoria's Bellarine Peninsula where he lives for the two months of the year he isn't in Europe.

Just as he went to leave, his three-year-old son Robel had some advice.

"It was pouring with rain so his advice going out the door was 'be careful, it's wet and slippery'," Evans said.

"Then he asked me where I was riding so I told him what towns I was going to and he said 'oh okay, good' so he understands the training and cycling pretty well actually. They learn and develop every day.

"He likes to ride his bike more than anything and that's our most quality time together.

"Whether it's on the baby seat on the back or on his little bike that he can pedal and ride without training wheels now, he's got his own independence there already."

News_Image_File: Evans with Chiara and Robel at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

For a team sport where racing often means rolling along the roads in a pack of 160 riders like a giant wave on the ocean, cycling can still be a solitary and at times lonely pursuit.

And that wet December day in Barwon Heads reminded Evans of two things he has to look forward to when he retires, whenever that may be.

More time with family and less time riding in the rain - or like in last year's Giro d'Italia, riding in the snow and fighting the threat of hyperthermia.

"Riding in the rain is something I won't miss when I stop racing," Evans said.

"But it will be a big change for me because it's been 18 years or something that I've been a full-time bike rider so it's going to be a big change in my life that's for sure.

"At the moment I'm involved in a few things outside of cycling, companies and so on, and I imagine things will continue there (and) at least when I don't have to race, I will have a bit more time to do things well and interact with people."

At 36 and preparing for what could be his final season of professional cycling starting at the national championships at Buninyong tomorrow and in Adelaide at the Santos Tour Down Under on January 19, 'off season' is hardly the way to describe Evans' last few months.

In a country where cycling's popularity continues to boom and Evans remains its only Tour de France and world championship winner, he is in demand.

"I'm up early to do my training," Evans said, when asked if he is swamped by cycling fans trying to keep up with him along the Great Ocean Road.

"I think most people know what I do and at this time of year everyone is happy to give a toot or a wave.

"It's pretty quiet in Barwon Heads until the summer holidays so it's not stressful.

"I'm working to be as good as I can for Tour Down Under so that will mean avoiding travel, training well, staying healthy and all the usual things that are important to being a professional cyclist."

News_Image_File: Big crowds turned out to see Evans on last year's TDU.

The day he spoke to SA Weekend, Evans was on the bike by 8am and spent five hours in the saddle. He came home briefly for lunch, got to spend five minutes with Robel and his wife Chiara, then was in the car on the way to a function in Melbourne.

"I keep busy put it that way, training of course, and racing in January requires good training in December," he said.

"I have a few things going on outside of cycling which I don't get to in Europe because I'm racing but I've been travelling around a bit, I went to Sydney on the weekend so I call it being productive, not stressful."

Such is the corporate and public demand for Evans' time, his Australian-based manager Jason Bakker said he could easily schedule a speaking or cycling engagement with the star every day when he is back in Australia.

"No doubt," Bakker says.

"I start working on Cadel's schedule for the following season as soon as he returns to Europe and we try to maintain a limit on his peripheral commitments to his sponsors and partners."

In an era where cycling continues to throw up unwanted surprises from the past, Evans is a shining light for clean sport and what can be achieved through good old fashioned hard work and dedication.

Asked how he had not become disillusioned with the sport as bombshell after bombshell continued to trash its image, Evans - like the majority of the peloton - points to professional cycling now being cleaner than ever.

"Now I think the authorities and so on involved in the sport have done a lot more than we thought they were capable of doing, and even more than we hoped they would be able to do," Evans said.

"In that regard in the last few years they've made a lot of progress and it's been compliments to the authorities who have been involved in the fight against drugs in sport."

One of the most attractive things about Evans the professional athlete is that sponsors know what they're going to get, and they are desperate to get a piece of him.

"They know the type of person he is and whatever he promotes, he embeds himself into," Bakker says.

News_Image_File: A win in the Giro d'Italia is Evans' next big goal.

One of his passions is sustainability and an interest in how the world will cope when its population hits the predicted nine billion mark by 2050, and hence his partnership with engineering giant Siemens and their focus on sustainable technologies for the future.

It is almost as if Evans' brain is wired to think about things differently, which Bakker got a glimpse of in London last year when they were on top of the London Eye with their wives.

"It was after the Olympics and we were marvelling at the sights of London, but Cadel was marvelling at the London Eye and what was driving it," Bakker recalls.

"He's really interested in engineering and motor vehicles as well.

"Cycling is his passion, it has been his career and his hobby, but equally I don't think he would want cycling to define him as a person.

"It is an extremely important element of his life but I'm sure he's looking forward to the challenges of family life and business.

"But not before he achieves what he wants to on the bike, he's not buying out time, he isn't just meandering along."

Like the conundrum of 'what to buy the person who has everything', the same could be said of Evans' career as it heads into the twilight zone.

What more is there to win when you've got a yellow and a rainbow jersey in the wardrobe at home?

But Evans has never had a problem staying motivated.

"As soon as you win one, it comes around again another year so there are almost never-ending goals and challenges in cycling," he said.

He still thinks about his 2011 Tour de France triumph, but vision of him riding onto the Champs Elysees in the yellow jersey doesn't flash through his mind giving him goosebumps or the motivation to keep pedalling alone in the rain.

News_Image_File: Evans collects the spoils afforded to the winner of the Tour de France in 2011.

"I was riding with a guy today and he asked me about it," Evans said of becoming the first Australian to win the Tour de France.

"But it wasn't something that was on my mind when it was windy and horrible.

"Every now and then memories come by but normally only when I'm asked about it.

"I've had a lot of racing in my career and of course the 2011 Tour was a special one but that was one of many."

Rather, it's the lure of what's still to come and the dream of what's yet to be conquered that keeps Evans going.

Which is why next year he has a new goal - to win the Tour of Italy, better known as the Giro d'Italia, and the first of cycling's three Grand Tours for the year.

For the past 10 years Evans has put a bright red circle around July on the calendar, trained to the letter and raced the Tour de France in search of cycling's biggest prize.

So accepting that his days at the Tour de France are now most likely numbered and BMC will instead be led by young American Tejay van Garderen was initially hard to take.

But it all comes with a silver lining.

"It wasn't easy for me to accept at first," Evans said.

"I gave 10 years of my life to that race, so I'm sort of looking forward now especially that I have a son, of being able to go on a summer holiday - it's been a long time."

In 2014 it will be 12 years since Evans debuted at the Giro d'Italia and announced his arrival as a road racer after making the switch from Olympic mountain biker.

In the 2002 Giro he spent a day in the leader's pink jersey and finished 14th overall. He has been back to the race twice, finishing fifth in 2010 and third last year when he became the first Australian to finish on the podium.

"A lot's gone on since 2002, it's 12 years and I'm looking forward to it again," he said.

"We'll have a similar team to what we'll have at Tour Down Under and our work together for the Giro starts at Tour Down Under.

"I'm happy to go back again and have enough time to prepare for it as best I can."

News_Rich_Media: Simon Gerrans says Cadel Evans is someone to watch but believes he and his team, Orica GreenEdge, have the advantage leading into Sunday's National Road Race championships in Ballarat.

In a sign of how healthy Australian cycling is, Evans is only one of Australia's contenders for the Giro crown.

The other is Tasmanian Richie Porte, who rose through the local triathlon scene and domestic road series to join super teams Saxo Bank and Sky, and is considered Evans' heir apparent as Australia's next Grand Tour contender.

They both know there are bigger threats for the Giro than simply marking each other, but it still poses a mouth-watering head-to-head battle in May.

"I suppose 12 years ago we didn't even consider having a GC contender at the Giro d'Italia and now we'll go there and have two," Evans said.

"When you put it in that perspective, we've come a long way."

To win the Giro, Evans will have to defy history and become the oldest ever winner of the three-week race.

But he has already proven that age is no barrier by becoming the oldest Tour de France winner in 88 years in 2011.

And as American Chris Horner showed last year when at 41 he became the oldest ever winner of the Tour of Spain (Vuelta a Espana), anything is possible.

"I don't have any intentions to race at a high level when I'm 40 years old," Evans said.

"But for us who are closer to the end of our careers, his (Horner's) result was a nice little boost for us."

News_Image_File: Evans on the opening stage of last year's Tour Down Under.

Australian Allan Peiper is sporting manager at BMC and said it took some time for Evans to come to terms with leaving the Tour de France behind and focusing on the Giro.

"But knowing Cadel and the way he approaches everything in his life which is with 100 per cent commitment ... so much of his life has been in Italy and I think that's also a big motivational factor that's going to play a big part in possible success in Italy in May," Peiper said.

"I had two years with Cadel at (former team) Lotto and I was a neo-director then, there was a lot of learning for me in that period, but even in the years of the past I've been with some really wonderful bike riders.

"But Cadel is the rider that impressed me the most with his ability, his pure strength, his commitment.

"I was only talking at the office yesterday about the difference between top riders - some riders just have the whole package together and Cadel has that.

"He has that innate physical strength, the determination and also the motivation to sacrifice.

"Like I said to him in October when we did discuss the Giro, I said 'this could be the big final sacrifice, one big push to the Giro as you've done so many times to the Tour before'.

"And I do believe he can knock it off."

So if this is the big, final sacrifice for Evans, and it all starts in Ballarat and Adelaide this month, will he allow himself time to soak up the home crowd one last time?

"I think so," he said.

"There probably will be a feeling of sentiment.

"People ask me every day where will I start racing (in 2014) and of course I say 'Tour Down Under' and they either tell me 'yeah I'm going over for it' or 'I probably will go over for it'.

"So I feel like I'm going to be surrounded by many friends."

Many friends, and many, many fans.