Ballarat abuzz as champion rider Cadel Evans comes to town

CADEL Evans rolls into Ballarat today in pursuit of one of the few remaining titles missing from his spectacular career.

AUSTRALIA'S greatest ever road cyclist Cadel Evans rolls into Ballarat today in pursuit of one of the few remaining titles missing from his spectacular career.

At 36 and in the final year of his current deal with BMC Racing Team, today's national championship road race could be the start of possibly his last season of professional cycling.

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Evans will arrive in Ballarat this morning and leave shortly after the race before Adelaide prepares to host the star rider from early next week.

An adoring home crowd is expected to pack the Buninyong circuit to see him race the Aussie titles for the first time since 2005 and take on the collective might of Orica-GreenEDGE and Drapac over 183km.

The only Australian to win the Tour de France and UCI road world championship, Evans will also ride next week's Santos Tour Down Under in Adelaide on the way to his major goal, the Giro d'Italia in May.

Evans said Australian cycling fans had told him all summer they were excited about being able to watch him race on home soil and he would embrace the sentiment of home crowd support.

Evans has not revealed how long he plans to keep pedalling beyond this season but says he does allow himself to think about life after cycling.

"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," Evans said.

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

His sporting manager at BMC, Allan Peiper, believes Evans - who was third in last year's Giro - has what it takes to get to the top step.

"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."

And it all starts in Ballarat today.