In the absence of defending champion Alberto Contador, Evans heads into this year's Tour de France as the clear favourite.
The 31-year-old Aussie was a champion mountain biker before switching to road racing in 2001 but it took a while for him to make his mark, partly on account of him breaking his collarbone three times.
It was his move to the Lotto team in 2005 which really vaulted him into the Tour de France picture.
He finished eighth that year and has been on an upward curve since then, coming fourth in 2006 and runner-up last year when he also picked up his first stage victory.
He also finished fourth in the 2007 Vuelta a Espana, fifth in the UCI Road World Championships and sixth in the Giro di Lombardia which all added up to him winning the ProTour classification, effectively making him the number one cyclist in the world.
He may not be the best climber in the Tour but he's not far off and it's a similar story in the time trials and that solid all-round package should see him bang in contention again as he bids to become the first Australian winner.
His chances have been further boosted this year by Lotto's signing of Yaroslav Popovych as his chief lieutenant as the tough Ukrainian helped Contador to victory with Discovery last year.
His build up this season has gone smoothly too - he won the fourth stage of the Paris-Nice race on the brutal Mont Ventoux climb and has several other stage wins to his name around Europe.
He was second in the Dauphine Libere, his final warm-up race, and has since been training in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in southern Spain and also up in the hills in Stelvio in Italy.
Having gone within 23 seconds of winning last year's Tour de France, he looks the man to beat this time around.
