By Jamie Duncan
Cadel Evans believes Richie Porte's years as a loyal Tour de France lieutenant are paying off as he fights to become only the second Australian to win cycling's greatest race.
Missing the tour for the first time in 10 years, 2011 champion Evans managed to catch the last 5km of Stage 11 on television in a Melbourne hotel room early Thursday as countryman Porte maintained his overall second placing, 2m23s behind Italy's Vincenzo Nibali.
On a fleeting trip home to launch his own event - the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Race - Evans praised the job Porte had done to put himself in contention after taking over as Team Sky leader when defending champion Chris Froome crashed out a week ago.
"Richie, physically, he's certainly got the capabilities to do a great three weeks, as he's shown in years gone by," said Evans.
"He spent a long time with Froome and a long time with (2012 champion Bradley) Wiggins for their two victories."
Evans sounded a note of caution, warning Nibali would be "hard to beat".
But he believed 29-year-old Porte was being rewarded for those tours ridden selflessly to help the two most recent winners.
"His history has shown that has one day that can cost him a lot of time. That would be the first thing," said Evans.
"But he's in a different position now. He's a year older, a year more experienced, a year more mature and maybe if he can avoid that day he's going to be well positioned, at least for the podium.
"All the best for him because he's a great guy and from what I see he's given so much to his teammates.
"He's given so much to the sport.
"It's just the sport's way of saying, 'Hey, you've invested all this in the sport', and now maybe it's going to pay him back."
Evans admitted it was an odd experience to watch the tour from Australia, rather than be riding it.
"I think my couch is a little bit more comfortable than the seat of my bike, unfortunately," he said.
"Before I rode the tour, the tour wasn't shown live on TV in Australia. It was quite bizarre to switch it on and see the thing being competed."
"It's a little bit strange but I watch it, I enjoy it."