'I'm home': Cadel Evans' vision to reinvigorate nation as racing destination

The former Tour de France champion speaks exclusively to Spokes about relocating to Barwon Heads with his young family, finding magic in the mundane, and ambition.

When Cadel Evans was young, he dreamed of leaving Australia to move abroad and forge a career competing against the best cyclists across the sport’s traditional homelands.

He did that for decades, becoming Australia’s first – and still only – Tour de France champion, basing himself in Europe. But now, 10 years after retiring from competition, Evans, his wife, Stefania, and their two children have relocated. The family moving to Barwon Heads, a coastal town in Victoria, where Evans, during his former quest for racing glory, would often spend off-seasons.

“17^th of January was the day we landed with the family, and it was a bit of a relief to walk through passport control and have everything in order and call Australia home again,” Evans tells Spokes in a phone interview from a comfy seat at his house.

“It was something we’ve been planning to do for a while, but a couple of things happen, sometimes you’re just there, oh yeah, we’ll do this, we’ll do that, and then one or two things go right or wrong in your life, and you’re like, ‘That’s it, I’m going.’ Or, ‘That’s it, we’re going,’ in my case.”

Cadel Evans has relocated to Australia with his young family. Photo: CEGORR

The move was perfectly timed with the running of Evans’ eponymous one-day WorldTour race in Geelong, and with the new school year for two of his sons aged four and six.

“It wasn’t really a move back, it was more be based back in Australia than be based in Europe I suppose because I still have belongings and things, I still have a place in Europe,” Evans says. “I didn’t do the thing Richie Porte did, where you pack a container and put it on a ship, and ship all your stuff back to Australia from Europe. I just filled my suitcases to the limit of the baggage allowances, and we came home. It was mostly kids’ clothes!”

Evans admits the long-distance relocation has been a bit of adjustment from the pace he life he was accustomed to as a professional athlete, and for the family. Stefania, a former professional skier of Italian and Mauritian heritage, isn’t sold on Vegemite yet.

“She’s not a big Vegemite fan. A lot of things she likes, but she’s from a different culture and Europeans, they live very close to their family, family is very close, so to be on the other side of the world is an adjustment for her. But, strange enough, her neighbour’s daughter is driving through Geelong tonight, so they’re coming to dinner,” Evans quips.

Back in Barwon Heads, he is now finding great joy in what your average person may consider the mundane.

“If I had to make an adjustment - this is going to sound strange to most people - it’s to be in one place, and say I’m home. I’ve never had that since I was 16 because I’ve been travelling for, like, 30 years. I suppose I’m having to adjust to not having to adjust.”

Evans speaks very highly of his family and is involved in their day-to-day. He’d just returned from the school run before talking to Spokes, cycling there and back with one of his sons.

“It's funny, the whole being a bike rider and travelling all the time. It sounds great, and it is great, but you miss little things,” Evans says.

“I’m happy to be home on the weekend and do what for most people is the most boring thing ever, like, cut your hedge, and mow your lawn. I never got to do that all my life because I was going to a bike race, or training camp, or something.

“I won’t be surprised if I do get sick of it, look for a change soon, but to be able to go home, or be nearby home, and do my things, and pick up my boys from school, that’s been one thing about not racing anymore which is good. But to do it in Australia has been, for me, just, yeah. Seeing my son put his little primary school uniform on in the morning is, on a personal level, very satisfying.”

Racing resurgence

Away from family life, the 48-year-old is all-in on the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, which celebrated its 10^th edition in February. He’s also genuinely passionate about solidifying the Australian summer of cycling, making the nation an early-season destination for professional racers locally and abroad.

Evans is hopeful that the resurrection of the Herald Sun Tour in Victoria next year will help with that – bolstering the calendar that also includes South Australia’s Tour Down Under in January.

“I suppose I’ve come back to Australia and it’s sort of disappointing,” the former world champion says of the scene that is sparser than years gone by.