Evans hoping to compete in Tour de France

Australian road race world champion Cadel Evans is confident his move to the BMC Racing team will not compromise his bid to ride in next year's Tour de France.

Evans stunned the cycling world earlier in the week when he bought out the final year of his contract with Belgium-based Silence-Lotto in order to join the second-tier BMC team that does not compete on the ProTour and therefore does not get an automatic invitation to Le Tour.

"I'd be surprised if we don't make it. I really believe in our ability as a team to prove we should get there," said Evans.

"(But) if I don't get a start in the Tour de France next year, as long as we tried our best and there's a good reason why we didn't go there, that's something that I would have to accept."

Ambitious from the start, BMC have already recruited some big-hitting riders to the team, including former world champion Alessandro Ballan and Lance Armstrong's former lieutenant George Hincapie.