Evans: BMC still a force

Tour de France champion Cadel Evans has backed his climbing support despite BMC Racing's major signings being classics specialists.

Norwegian Thor Hushovd and Belgian Philippe Gilbert have been BMC's high-profile signings in the off-season, causing concerns support for Evans had been ignored.

But the Australian believes the inclusions of Tejay van Garderen and Steve Cummings will provide him with able support during his title defence in June and July.

"For me, the climbing aspect of our team is great," Evans said at a team training camp in Spain on Thursday.

"I feel Tejay is a bit of an under-rated rider at the moment. I saw him first hand when he was away on the stage to Super-Besse last year and you could see what he's capable of, but every day he was riding on the front for (Mark) Cavendish."

"With us, he's going to have the opportunity to ride on terrain that suits him, and he's going to have opportunities in his own races to ride for himself too."

The newly-merged RadioShack-Nissan team, which features brothers Andy and Frank Schleck, are considered to be BMC's and Evans' biggest threats at the Tour.

Evans, who with wife Chiara Passerini last month adopted a one-year old Ethiopian boy named Robel, said it was a pairing BMC could not match.

"No team can be as good as the combination of the Schleck brothers together because they're two of the best five climbers in the world, but that's a unique combination of two brothers racing," he said.

"I don't have a brother, so I can't do much about that."