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Cadel Evans is a professional cyclist from Australia who was born February 14, 1977. Evans finished the 2006 season ranked number 4 on the UCI ProTour.
Cadel Evans (born 14 February, 1977 in Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia) is a professional cyclist. Prior to turning to road cycling in 2001, Evans was a champion mountain biker, riding for the Volvo-Cannondale MTB team, winning the World Cup in 1998 and 1999 and placing 7th in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Career
Cadel Evans started his International carreer as a member of the Australian Institute of Sport MTB team, under the leadership of A.I.S. Head Coach, German born Heiko Salzwedel and MTB Coach Damien Grundy. He was an exceptional Moutain Biker, winning Silver medals at the 1997 and 1999 MTB U23 World Championships, but also won a Bronze medal at the 1995 Junior World Road Cycling Time Trial Championships.
During his career on the road he has been a member of the following teams: Saeco (2001), Mapei (2002), 2003-2004 T-Mobile Team (then named [i]Team Telekom[/i]). For the 2005 season he signed with Davitamon-Lotto, and on his first Tour de France later that year achieved 8th place in the overall General Classification, the first Australian to place in the top ten in the Tour de France since Phil Anderson. Evans demonstrated his climbing skills by often riding in the group with Lance Armstrong, Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich in the Tour's mountain stages. He powered home the Stage 16 breakaway and conquered the Col d'Aubisque (1677m - HC), but was eventually caught by Óscar Pereiro, Eddy Mazzoleni, and Xabier Zandio. He pulled the hardest and longest especially on the run in to Pau.
In 2006, he won the Tour de Romandie, snatching the leader's jersey off two Spaniards, Liberty Serguros' Alberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde from the Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears team, on the last stage (a 20.4 km Individual Time Trial around the Swiss city of Lausanne).
His other successes as a road cyclist have been a stage win in the Austria Tour in 2001, overall win of the Austria Tour 2004, a stage win of the Tour Down Under in 2002, fourteenth place in the 2002 Giro d'Italia (he wore the leader's jersey, [i]Maglia Rosa[/i] for one day), and Commonwealth Games time trial Champion in 2002.
Evans is an exceptionally strong climber on the high mountains, as he showed again in the 2005 Tour de France, where he frequently rode with the front group on the high mountain stages. He is also an exceptional Individual Time-Trialist, recording various top 10 finishes in races. Evans is considered one of the best riders in the professional peloton in the world at the moment.
