Australian cyclist Cadel Evans took seven attempts before finally winning the Tour de France, but the 2011 defending champion knows it's no easy task to win multiple times.

"Everybody's asking me: 'Can you win two?' When Lance Armstrong won his first he was asked the same and then he won five and he was asked: 'Can you win six?' and he went on to win seven. That's the nature of our sport," Evans, the BMC team leader, told Reuters earlier this month.

"The approach changes a little bit when you've won it. I would not say I'm less ambitious but ambitious in a different manner. Before you won your first Tour you ask yourself: how do I do it? The second: let's just repeat what we did."

The 35-year-old has twice been a runner-up, but knows the odds are stacked against him with an emphasis on time trials as opposed to mountain stages.

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