Cadel Evans
Cadel Lee Evans, born 14 February, 1977 in Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia and attended Eltham High School in the state of Victoria during his teenage years. He races for UCI Professional Continental Team, BMC Racing Team and is the reigning World Road champion.
Cadel won the 2009 Elite Men’s World Road Race Championship and became the first Australian Professional to win the honour. (In the early 1950s, Australian Amateur cyclist Jack Hoobin won the World Amateur World Championship).
Following on from the 2009 Tour de France, Cadel recovered to finish the season in great form, placed third in the Tour of Spain ahead of winning the World Rainbow Jersey at Mendrisio, Switzerland.
In 2007, Evans became the first Australian to win the UCI Pro Tour. He has the highest Tour de France finishes for an Australian having been placed second in 2007 and 2008.
Before turning to road cycling in 2001, Evans was a champion mountain biker, first riding for the Diamondback MTB team, then for the Volvo-Cannondale MTB team, winning the World Cup in 1998 and 1999. He was placed seventh in the Men's Cross-country Mountain Bike race at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
Cadel Evans is married to Chiara Passerini, an Italian pianist whom he met at the end of 2002 after an introduction from a friend of her father's, who assisted the Australian with lodgings near the training centre of his Mapei team (at the time).
Evans started his international career as a member of the Australian Institute of Sport MTB team, under head coach, Heiko Salzwedel and MTB coach Damien Grundy. He won silver medals at the 1997 and 1999 under-23 World Championships and Bronze Medals at the 1995 Junior World Road time trial championship and Junior World mountain bike championship.
He has ridden for Saeco (2001), Mapei (2002) and Team Telekom (2003-2004). Cadel joined Davitamon-Lotto in 2005 and came eighth in his first Tour de France, the first Australian in the top ten since Phil Anderson.
Early successes included overall wins in the 2001 and 2004 editions of the Tour of Austria, fifth in the Tour of Germany in 2005, a stage win of the Tour Down Under in 2002, winning the mountains classification in the Tour Down Under in 2006, 14th in the 2002 Giro d'Italia (he wore the leader's jersey, Maglia Rosa for one day), and Commonwealth Games Time Trial champion in 2002.