Cadel Evans is Australia's greatest ever cyclist, and one of our greatest sportsmen.
From his beginnings as the youngest winner of a World Cup in mountain biking at 20 to the oldest post-War winner of the Tour de France at 34, Cadel Evans spent 20 years at the top of his sport.

From 1995 to his final race in February 2015, Evans has had a spectacular career. Australia's first, and only, Tour de France champion, he placed in the top ten in six Tours de France, claimed the points jersey at the 2010 Giro d'Italia and overall UCI ProTour winner in 2007.

He won the Tour de Romandie in 2006 and 2011, represented Australia at the 1996, 2000, 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games, claiming gold in the road time trial at the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games and silver in the road race. He won the UCI World Championship in Mendrisio in 2009.

In 2013 he finished third in the Giro d'Italia, becoming the first Australian to stand on the final podium at all three Grand Tours - the Tours of France, Italy and Spain.

Evans's successes are even more significant given he achieved them during cycling's darkest era when the sport was regularly rocked by doping scandals, the most famous being self-confessed doper Lance Armstrong being stripped of seven Tour de France victories.

It was Evans's win in the 2011 Tour de France which was applauded the world over, not just for the courage and tenacity he showed in the race, but because he had finished second in the Tour by just seconds in 2007 and 2008. And the applause also came because a rider everyone knew was "clean" had won cycling's most revered and toughest three-week race.

Known as a meticulous trainer and an athlete who prided himself on his ability to "put it all on the road", Evans writes about the triumphs, the frustrations, the training, the preparation, the psychology of the sport, his contemporaries, past legends, how he maintained such amazing consistency and, always, his enduring love of cycling.