Cadel Lee Evans (; born 14 February 1977) is an Australian former professional racing cyclist who competed professionally in both mountain biking and road bicycle racing. A four-time Olympian, Evans is one of three non-Europeans – along with Greg LeMond, and Egan Bernal – to have won the Tour de France, winning the race in 2011.
Early in his career, he was a champion mountain biker, winning the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in 1998 and 1999 and placing seventh in the men's cross-country mountain bike race at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Evans has competed in four Olympics: in 1996 and 2000 (mountain bike), and in 2008 and 2012 (road bike). Evans turned to full-time road cycling in 2001, and gradually progressed through the ranks. He finished second in the Tour de France in 2007 and 2008. Both of these 2nd place finishes are in the top 10 of the closest Tours in history. He became the first Australian to win the UCI ProTour (2007) and the UCI Road World Championships in 2009.
After finishing outside the top twenty in 2009 and 2010, Evans became the first Australian rider to win the Tour de France in 2011, riding for the BMC Racing Team. He took the race lead on the penultimate day, after completing a 42.5-kilometre (26.4-mile) individual time trial some two-and-a-half minutes quicker than his closest rivals, Andy Schleck and Fränk Schleck. At age 34, he was among the five oldest winners in the race's history. He also made the podium in the 2009 Vuelta a España and the 2013 Giro d'Italia.
Evans retired on 1 February 2015, after completing a race named in his honour.
Cadel Evans was born on 14 February 1977 at the Katherine District Hospital, Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia, to Helen (née Cocks), a bank manager, and Paul Evans, a council foreman. He spent his early childhood in the small Aboriginal community of Barunga, 80 kilometres (50 miles) east of Katherine. At the age of seven, he was hit in the head by a horse, and spent seven days in an induced coma. In 1986, his parents separated and he first moved with his mother to Armidale, New South Wales, and then to the Melbourne suburb of Eltham, Victoria, where his mother still lives. Evans attended Newling Public School in Armidale, and Eltham High School in Melbourne. Skateboarding was one of his teenage interests. His father describes him as a good student, but otherwise just an ordinary kid who would leave his toys around; "Not in [my] wildest dreams" would he imagine that his son would become a top world athlete.
Evans started his international career in 1995 as a Scholarship-holder in the Australian Institute of Sport mountain bike (MTB) Program, under A.I.S. Cycling Program's MTB coach Damian Grundy, and up to 1998 under road coach Heiko Salzwedel. While Evans was at the Australian Institute of Sport, physiological tests showed he possessed a rare combination – an unusually high lung volume and the capacity to absorb more oxygen from each breath than 99.9 per cent of the population. This ability led to him becoming known as 'The Lung'.
Evans won bronze medals at the 1995 Junior world mountain bike championship and Junior world road time trial championship, and silver medals at the 1997 and 1999 under-23 world championships. He won the cross-country overall trophy in the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in both 1998 and 1999. In 1998 Shayne Bannan was the under-23 road cycling coach based in Italy.
Evans competed in two Olympics in mountain bike events: finishing ninth in cross-country at the 1996 Olympics, then finishing seventh at the 2000 Olympics.
In 1997, he rode for the Diamondback MTB team, and then for the Volvo–Cannondale MTB team.
In March 2017, Evans was back on a mountain bike and competing in the Masters category at the eight-day Cape Epic stage race in South Africa over 641 kilometres (398 miles). The race, held in a two-person team format saw Evans partner George Hincapie – his domestique at the 2011 Tour de France – and they won the category.
Cadel Evans had a breakthrough road cycling performance at the 1999 Tour of Tasmania, where commentator Phil Liggett famously proclaimed that Evans would win the Tour de France one day. It was not until 2001, however, that Evans officially made the switch to road cycling and joined the Saeco team. He spent one year with Saeco in 2001 and another year with Mapei–Quick-Step in 2002 before two years with T-Mobile Team (2003–2004). Other early successes included overall wins in the 2001 and 2004 editions of the Tour of Austria, 14th in the 2002 Giro d'Italia (he wore the general classification leader's pink jersey for one day), Commonwealth Games time trial champion in 2002 and a stage win of the 2002 Tour Down Under.
At Mapei, he was coached by Aldo Sassi, who helped him make the transition from mountain biker to grand tourer. After Sassi's death from cancer in 2010, Evans continued cooperation with his protege Andrea Morelli. After winning the Tour de France in 2011, Evans dedicated the victory to the late coach.
From the 2005 season he joined Davitamon–Lotto and came eighth in his first Tour de France, the first Australian in the top ten since Phil Anderson. He finished fifth at the Deutschland Tour.
In 2006, Evans started the season by winning the mountains classification in the Tour Down Under. Evans won the Tour de Romandie, beating Spanish riders Alberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde on the last stage, a 20-kilometre (12-mile) time trial around Lausanne. He finished fifth in the Tour de France but was promoted to fourth after the disqualification of apparent winner Floyd Landis due to a failed drug test. Evans was also named Australian Cyclist of the Year.
In the 2007 Tour de France, Evans finished runner-up to Contador. He won the stage 13 individual time trial and came second in the stage 19 individual time trial. Evans finished fourth in the Vuelta a España. He came fifth in the world championship and sixth in the final UCI ProTour race, the Giro di Lombardia. As a result, he won the overall ProTour classification with 247 points ahead of Davide Rebellin and Contador. He was again named Australian Cyclist of the Year.
The 2008 season saw Evans become one of Australia's most successful cyclists after consecutive podium places at the Tour de France. Evans was a favourite to win the Tour de France because Contador was not allowed to participate as his team Astana were not invited. Evans held the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification from stages 10 to 14. However, during Alpe d'Huez on stage 17, Carlos Sastre of Team CSC took 2 minutes 15 seconds from Evans. By the penultimate stage time trial, Evans needed to ride 1 minute 34 seconds faster than Sastre. He beat Sastre and jumped to second place but remained 58 seconds behind at the end of the Tour. While recovering from a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament, Evans contested the 245-kilometre (152-mile) men's road race at the Beijing Olympics, finishing 15th, 22 seconds behind Samuel Sánchez. He placed fifth in the road time trial four days later.
In 2009, Evans won the Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré. A combination of poor team support and poor form hampered his Tour de France campaign and he was only able to finish in 30th place, 45 minutes behind winner Contador. Evans finished third overall in the Vuelta a España, during which he wore the gold leader's jersey for a day, although his race was marred by mechanical failure in the way up the Sierra Nevada mountain finish. Evans joined an elite group of cyclists who have all worn all three leaders jerseys; the pink jersey for the leader of the general classification in the Giro d'Italia in 2002, the yellow jersey for the leader of the general classification in the Tour de France for 4 days in the 2008 Tour de France, and the gold jersey for the leader of the general classification in the Vuelta a España.
Evans went on to win the road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Mendrisio, Switzerland on 27 September. He was awarded Australian Cyclist of the Year for the third time.