Despite below-par performances in the decisive final week, Cadel Evans still managed to defend himself and finish on the podium when last season’s Giro d’Italia came to its end in Brescia. The appearance in the Italian grand tour was followed by an ill-fated Tour de France campaign in execution of the whole BMC team, but this year both the revived American squad and 37-year old Australian seem more than ready for a three-week long challenge.

A disastrous first half of the 2013 season forced significant changes in the BMC management, and an almost instant transformation of the American squad, in terms of both riders’ motivation and results, could have been observed after Allan Peiper took command.

One of most significant changes in approach was marking narrower and more precisely defined targets for BMC leaders, and the Giro d’Italia-oriented race programme of the 37-year old Australian is on of many examples.

Differently than last year, Evans could focus all his attention on the Italian grand tour, as Tejay van Garderen is expected to lead the American squad in their Tour de France campaign. The winner of the French three-week race from 2011 acknowledged that it is not certain whether he would return to the event before the and of his career, but claimed to accept such possibility on both personal and professional ground.

"For me on a personal level, the Giro was the first grand tour that I did back in 2002 and now on a professional level, the team wants me to do the Giro and not the Tour, so obviously here I am at the Giro," Evans said, adding: "But on a personal level, that’s fine for me. I'm lucky that things came together in at least one of my Tours. I don’t know if I’ll race the Tour again but regardless of whether I do or not, I leave it reasonably satisfied and now I'm putting my energy into the Giro."

Following Philippe Gilbert’s improved performances in the Ardennes classics, it seems that the new approach serves the Australian veteran well to, as Evans enjoyed the best spring this year since his career’s most successful 2011 season, when he had won Tirreno-Adriatico and Tour de Romandie before eventually claiming his sole Tour de France title.

This year, Evans had his season off to an almost perfect start with highly convincing performances in Australian championships and Tour Down Under, finishing runner-up on both occasions. The 37-year old Australian suffered some setbacks after racing returned to Europe, but it seems that he fine-tuned his disposition just on time, winning the Giro del Trentino two weeks ago.

“As a build-up to the Giro, the results have been a confirmation of the work I’ve done. We’re still a long way from Trieste but the preparation in Trentino was very encouraging,” he said.

Evans also revealed that his disappointing last two seasons, more in terms of pure performances than obtained results, were significantly affected by a virus which hampered his defense of the Tour de France title in 2012.

"It was a new experience to try to ride well while I was ill. It was a very difficult moment,” he said. “When you work as hard as before, with the same dedication, and make the same sacrifices as before – or maybe even more – and then you perform a lot worse, then it’s hard to manage mentally. 2012 and 2013 were two very difficult years. I raced for six months in 2012 with a virus without even realising it. That was very hard but now everything seems to be back to the way it was before."

Attending the pre-race press conference in Belfast, Evans shared a popular opinion that narrow and twisty Irish roads unknown to most of Giro favorites will make for a very hectic kind of racing and may cause some highly unpredictable results.

.

"Racing in Ireland is new to all of us and we don’t know how hard it will be," Evans said. "For those of us who are here for the general classification, it’s going to be very important not to lose time and that will be challenging.”

"I think most of us will be riding a little bit into the unknown, we don’t really know these conditions. The main thing I’ve noted is that the roads are quite narrow, and with rain, wind and 180 riders in the field, well that’s a lot of riders competing for places on the front."

The BMC leader also stated the obvious, that the race is going to be decided in the brutal final week of competition, when more than just optimal disposition will be needed in order to go away with the goods in Trieste.

"They’re going to be the most difficult stages, and the stages where I need to be not just good but very good if I want to do something on the classification," he said.