As the Teams are filling the last few places of their Tour de France rosters, one thing is crystal clear, of the 22 teams selected for the biggest race of the year, there will be eight at the start with the ambition and capacity to have their respective leaders on the podium in Paris.

These teams are Saxo Bank-Sungard, Leopard Trek, BMC, Rabobank, RadioShack, Liquigas, Sky and Garmin-cervelo.

After the announcement of BMC’s line-up and Cadel Evans' solid performances over the last five months, in my mind, the scales are tipping more in his favour than of any other rider.

Indeed, Alberto Contador rode a strapping and credible Giro d'Italia, and he is the best Grand Tour rider of the last decade by far but there is a fitness question mark over him.

Can Contador recover in time for the Tour de France to prove to us all that he deserves that crown?

Several points of great advantage do go to Contador - he has the team, his own and Riis’experience to back him.

Andy Schleck was strong in the European spring this year but certainly wasn’t as dominant as he was in 2010 - missing a few key race-form indicators.

Even though he keeps repeating to the press that everything is going according to plan for the Tour de France, I'm reluctant to bank on that show of confidence.

Schleck's time-trials in Tour of California and Tour of Switzerland were nothing to write home about and this is the discipline which let him down in the 2010 edition of the Grande Boucle.

His Big Day Out in Switzerland, on the hunt for a stage victory, leaves me wondering if he has got the climbing form in the mountains to challenge for a place on the podium in Paris.

Ivan Basso, was always thought of as a strong challenger for the Tour this year but has suffered greatly from injuries after a nasty tumble in May.

This may leave him struggling for the condition he will need during the first two weeks of the Tour in which he can’t afford to lose valuable time.

Cadel Evans has taken a much more calculated approach to this season’s build-up to the Tour. He also has been on target for all his key races, which indicates that he has been working very hard in-between races for this year’s assault on the Tour.

His BMC team has gathered more strength and cultivated confidence with a lot of experienced support, from both riders and staff, something he needs to cleverly utilize to his advantage.

I agree with Team General Manager Jim Ochowicz, BMC have a nicely balanced tour team for the nervous and windy first week including the all-important teams time-trial - while also having competent riders to protect Evans on the flats and support him during the toughest mountain stages.

Evans' greatest asset in the 2011 Tour lies in the fact that he seems to have become a calmer and more patient man.

If he has truly mastered these skills, Evans will be able to think more clearly and act more decisively as a team leader, enabling him to appropriately give and receive orders and information to and from his riders and team directors.

During the 2008 tour with Team CSC Saxo Bank I watched and monitored Evans before, during and after each stage. He was after all our biggest rival for the overall victory. I especially watched and read all of his interviews.

The press was surely able “to bring out the best” in him.

Evans lost so much energy because he was not protected by his team management and he wasn’t shielding himself either by letting the pressures and journalists get under his skin.

I don’t think most spectators realized how much valuable nervous energy this cost him - energy, which he needed and lacked during the last three mountain stages of the 2008 Tour!

So to distill my opinion from this folks; what I’m trying to say is that neither Contador or Schleck will have the liberty to make any mistake, big or small, as Evans has got the form and the team to go all the way in the Tour de France this year.

I invite you to watch it unfold on SBS, and to follow me on twitter: @triplsmc - for updates and daily behind the scenes info during the Tour.