Former Tour de France winner Cadel Evans believes that his fellow countryman, Richie Porte, can make the podium in this year's race if he remains consistent for three weeks.
Evans won the Tour in 2011 while racing for BMC Racing – Porte's current team – and is now an ambassador for the Swiss-based bike brand. Present at the teams' presentation in Normandy, he picked out the predictable favourites for Tour victory but added that Porte and teammate Tejay van Garderen could compliment each other.
"I think it's interesting. I think that having Tejay and Richie together is good for both of them," he told Cyclingnews.
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"While they're the leaders they'll like to play a less prominent role into the third week and that plays into their favour. With Richie, I just hope that he doesn't have one of his bad days that he's had in years gone by. Then he can fight for the podium. He can climb and he can time trial, he just needs to put those together consistently over three weeks. Then he'll be right there."
Porte narrowly missed out on a podium spot at the Criterium du Dauphine earlier this month, while van Garderen game away from the Tour de Suisse with an impressive stage win in the mountains. Before either of BMC Racing's GC cards reach the Tour de France mountains they must survive an opening week that will be full of nerves and most likely crashes.
Evans, during his Tour-winning ride of 2011, was a constant presence at the front of the race during the opening stages, and he advocated a similar approach for Porte and van Garderen. The race starts this Saturday with a stage designed for the sprinters, while stage 2 entertains a climb towards the finishline.
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