Despite a below-par start to the season Cadel Evans is assured he will head the BMC Racing Team at this season's Tour de France

Evans came seventh in the 2012 Tour de France, subsequently learning that he had been disadvantaged by a virus. He halted his season prematurely in August and has since made a guarded coming back to competitive racing.

In contrast, teammate Tejay van Garderen finished fifth and won the best young rider white jersey at the Tour de France. He has since finished third overall at the Critérium International behind the dominant Team Sky duo of Chris Froome and Ritchie Porte. In the same race Evans was a distant 51st, more than 15 minutes down. He acknowledged that he had a poor time trial in his blog and verified that he worked as a domestique for van Garderen during the final stage. Yet Evans does not regard this as a sign of declining power on his part.

"There is some short-term memory from the media, I had a virus last year and I still was seventh in the Tour de France," the Australian told the Reuters news agency.

"Of course on paper, Tejay was better than me but people seem to forget what I have done on the Tour de France in the six years preceding 2012."

"If I'm not sick and everything goes according to plan, yes [I will lead the team}. Like I said there seems to be a short-term memory thing in the media, I did actually win the Tour once before. That does sort of prove that I can do it."

Sky the team to beat

Evans has elected a measured return after his virus problem and is confident it is the best way to bolster his form for the Tour de France.

"I had a virus last year and it changes everything at this point compared to 2011," he said. "I haven't won any races yet (this year) so in that regard I'm behind but it's a slow and steady progress towards the Tour.”

When it comes to his main rivals in the Tour, Evans has little doubt whence the menace will come. "They (Team Sky) seem to be very, very well prepared for the early part of the season with two whole teams of strong climbers and in the mountains at least they can dictate their own terms. Normally, putting guys at such a high level in the early season means you're going to pay for it later in the year, that would be the normal case - time will tell in that regard."

"For now they are going to be hard to beat, they're the guys to beat."