Australian Cadel Evans is the first Australian to win the prestigious Tour de France and the tours oldest winner since 1923.

Cadel Evans and all of Australia are celebrating his gutsy win in the most grueling cycling road race of all, the Tour de France, twenty stages through the French Alps finishing in Paris.

On Saturday Evans claimed the famed yellow jersey from his major rival Luxembourg’s Andy Schleck after his favourite stage of the event the formidable time trial performance. From that point on everyone knew that the race was Evans’s to win.

Race Director Christian Prudhomme pay tribute to Evans “In Cadel Evans, we have a true champion of the race,” he said.

During his acceptance speech, Evans paid tribute to his mentor Italian coach Aldo Sassi who passed away last year. He said, “Aldo Sassi always believed in me, more than I did myself”. “He said to me at one point, I hope that you can win a grand Tour and I hope for you it is the Tour de France for it’s the most prestigious. If you do, you’ll become the most complete rider of your generation,”.

Evans’s road captain, American teammate George Hincapie, said “when it came to bike riding his Aussie teammate was just as serious as seven-time Tour champion Lance Armstrong”. He went on to say “I’d say it’s similar. He’s very calm and collected and he really trusts his riders. He knows what part of the course is the most important to which rider he can really rely on,”.

After Evans won the World Championship in 2009, he joined the BMC team, Evans left nothing to chance this time, gathering the best possible team around him and building his entire season around his sole goal of winning the Tour.

It’s been a long hard road to the top for Evans. He was just 14 when he announced his ambition of winning the Tour de France. Many friends and family dismissed it as pipe dream. But 20 years later he has achieved the ‘Pipe Dream’.

Evans said after winning the race, “It’s been 20 years since I watched my very first Tour de France on TV and I said I’d like to win it,”.”A lot of people didn’t believe it. But some very good people believed in me, from my very first coach right through to the ones who turned me to the road.” Evans is among the few who can do it all – allowing him to win hilly one-day races, one-week stage races and the three-week Grand Tours.

Cadel Evans comes from the small seaside town of Barwon Heads in coastal Victoria, Australia where he is the pied piper of the district. All the local kids have been inspired by him, not only by his great achievements, but for the time he spends with them. Well done Cadel Evans!