2011 Tour de France winner Cadel Evans has told Fox Sports Australia that he is confident Chris Froome of Team Sky can successfully defend his Tour de France title, which would be the first successful defence since Lance Armstrong “won” his seven straight Tours.

“For him I think it’s possible,” he said. “He’ll be the only rider in this era who’ll be able to go back-to-back, barring illness and injury.”

Froome crashed out of his first title defence in 2014. Evans’ Tour de France defence was not great either, as he finished seventh in 2012, almost 16 minutes behind Bradley Wiggins and he faced the embarrassment of teammate Tejay van Garderen finishing above Evans in fifth despite working for Evans for almost two weeks.