"It's a beautiful show most of all," he told Cyclingnews of his overall impressions of the 102nd Tour. "As a rider you sit here and watch the review of this year's race, it's a beautiful show, just seeing cycling oไn the big screen, that's fantastic."
"The new course? It's ❀not much time trai💖ling, it's my main thing," he added.
Evans' 2011 triumph was sealed with a commanding ride in the penultimate stage, a 42.5km time trial in which he overhauled a 57 seco꧋nd deficient to Andy Sch🌃leck to finish 1:34 minute ahead of the Luxembourger and secure the yellow jersey.
Evans, who will retire in February next year, believes the 2015 edition of the race will be one of two halves with a predominately flat first half that features cobbles, cross winds and hill top finishes to test the peloton, while the second half, characterised ൩by summit finishes in the Alps and Pyrenees, which will decide who takes home the yellow jersey.
"I think again the first ten days, like this year's Tour, will be very difficult just to get through safely so that's that first step to doing a good general classification," Evans responded when asked which stages stand out.
During his time with BMC, Evans was regularly spotted at the front of the peloton with the likes of George Hincapie and Marcus Burghardt keeping him safe and out of trouble. Asked how he would race the first week of the Tour, Evan🅷s reiterated the need to remain alert and be in the first few wheels of the bunch.
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"At BMC, being a team also built for the classics, we had riders very well suited to that and having guys in the past like George Hincapie alongside me, guys like that who know these roads, know that racing very well, staying out of trouble, staying at the front and having a good team around you to keep you out of trouble," he said of how he would approach the race.
"Certainly [Alejandro] Va🍌lverde for example might be able to take a few seconds there [Mûr-de-Bretagne], and not having the time trial, maybe that will balance things about a bit there where a non-pure climber will be able to take back seconds because its more adapted for the riders who have a bit of a sprint as well on both the Mur de Huy and Mûr-de-Bretagne," he said of how the bonus seconds will affect the GC battle.
"It will of course be interesting and difficult to get through [but] it will be exciting to watch. In the𝓰 second half of the Tour, I think we'll see a whole turnaround of whatever happened in the first ten days because it's going to come down to the climbing legs of everyone."
And after three weeks of racing𝕴 a total distance of 3344km, who does Evans tip for the win?
"I'd like to think Vincenzo Nibali because he lives so close by to me but I think going into the second half, we can't discount Quintana at all with theဣ hilꦛl top finishes being so important.
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