World champion cyclist Cadel Evans predicts bigger and better 2010 for Lance Armstrong

Cyclist Evans expects big things from Armstrong

MELBOURNE, Australia — Road race world champion Cadel Evans is predicting bigger things for seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong in 2010 than he achieved in his comeback to professional cycling this season.

Armstrong finished third in this year’s Tour de France at age 37, his first since retiring following his unprecedented seventh straight win in 2005.

“He’s going to be bigger and more dangerous than in 2009 — we’ll see Armstrong at another level in 2010,” Evans said Wednesday during a promotional tour in Australia.

Armstrong has left the Kazakh-backed Astana team and will be the main rider for the new ProTour squad Team RadioShack.

Evans has also switched teams, the 32-year-old Australian leaving Belgium-based Silence-Lotto earlier this month for new American squad BMC.

He was 30th in the Tour de France this season after runner-up finishes in 2007 and ‘08, but got his year back on track by finishing third in the Tour of Spain and then winning the road race world championship at Switzerland in late September.

Both Armstrong and Evans will compete in the Tour Down Under in Adelaide, South Australia state, in January. Armstrong, a cancer survivor, made his competitive comeback in the same Australian race this year.

Evans’ team BMC has been given a wild-card entry for the Jan. 17-24 race.

Evans conceded he’d taken a risk signing with a new team, which will also need a wild card to race the Tour de France, but there were many benefits.

“BMC, they’re not a big team now, but they’re growing — for me, to join a team as they’re growing is an interesting project,” he said. “They have everything in place to be a very good team and that’s really what I’m looking for, the core values and philosophies.

“Maybe I will miss out on the Tour, but we have all the capabilities to prove we deserve a place.”