Cadel Evans, 2011 Tour de France winner, says that Richie Porte should be given leadership of Team Sky’s Giro d’Italia team, saying his only concern is if Porte can keep his form up after a long winter training and five months of hard racing.

“He’s had a fantastic start to the year. His performance at the time trial in the national championships and Tour Down Under showed he was right there,” Evans told Cyclingnews.

“With the way the [national title] road race panned out for us favourites, he wasn’t able to show what he had. But he got to show that at the Tour Down Under on the second last stage [that finished on Old Willunga Hill] and then built on that at Paris-Nice and Catalunya. It’s a great sign and obviously he is going better than he did last year. My only concern is [whether] he has done too much too early.”

Evans had a great year when he won the Tour, winning Tirreno-Adriatico and the Tour de Romandie, second place in the Criterium du Dauphine and seventh in the Volta a Catalunya. But he says he started hitting form in March and kept going for five months, rather than Porte doing it in January, where he won his National TT, took stages in Down Under and Algarve before winning Paris-Nice and Catalunya. He also has to ride Giro del Trentino before the Giro.

“[In 2011] I had a bit of a rest and started later. I was March until the end of July," Evans said.

“Richie is doing it from January till the end of May which is the same five months. [But] he may start to pay for it at the end of the Giro for what he did.”

“I don’t know what he did in his build up for the nationals, I suspect a lot by how well he was riding. He rode so convincingly in the time trial that didn’t suit him so well. As long he doesn’t pay for it in the second half of the Giro, it is a great sign.”

Evans sees Contador, Porte, Uran and Aru as the men who can fight it out to win the Maglia Rosa, and thinks Porte gapping Contador on the La Molina summit at Catalunya is psychologically huge for Porte ahead of the Giro.

“He is a pretty hard nut to crack. He is a hard one. It’s certainly much better to have one over him than none. That’s going to be to Richie’s advantage. But let’s see what sort of Contador arrives at the Giro. We saw a couple of grand tours where he turned up more than unbeatable. He is not quite the rider he was five years ago, but still he is still a hard nut to crack. It is difficult to argue he is not the same grand tour rider in this current generation.”

“After last year [Uran] is going to be hungrier, more experienced and a better rider. Aru is of the same level, but not as old, not as experienced … but a very good rider.”