ANNECY-SEMNOZ, France, July 20 AAP - Two years ago Cadel Evans rode onto the Champs Elysees in the Tour de France's yellow jersey but on Sunday he'll arrive in Paris facing an uncertain future following a "very disappointing" race.
In contrast fellow Australian Richie Porte (Sky) will ride the final stage alongside teammate and 2013 champion Chris Froome knowing he is now widely considered to be a future winner himself.
Froome secured victory - barring an accident on Sunday - by shadowing Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) on the final climb of the 20th stage.
Young Colombian Quintana won the day at Annecy-Semnoz and snared second place on the general classification (GC) in the process, plus victory in the King of the Mountains and Young Rider categories.
Spain's Rodriguez finished 18 seconds back but that was enough to climb into third overall after countryman Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) couldn't handle the pace and slipped to fourth.
Froome was third on Saturday some 29 seconds slower than Quintana but the Kenyan-born Briton remains more than five minutes ahead of his nearest rivals.
"We still have to roll into Paris tomorrow but this is it, this is the GC side of it pretty much sorted out and to finish it off like this is really special," Froome said after the stage.
The 28-year-old said the worst moment of the three-week race was when he hunger-flatted on Alpe d'Huez.
"When you have no more energy and you see a sign saying 5km left ... it's a really hard thing to try and get through physically and mentally.
"(But) thankfully I had my teammate Richie Porte with me and he gave me a lot of motivation."
As Porte crossed the line in fifth place on Saturday his Sky team tweeted: "Another hero of the race arrives."
The Tasmanian has played a pivotal role in Froome's success.
Former Tour stage winner Magnus Backstedt said if Froome defended his title in 2014 there'd be no doubt Sky would back Porte for either the Giro d'Italia or Vuelta a Espana to continue his development.
Evans entered the race with "big ambitions" so was "very, very disappointed" to struggle in the high mountains, the 2011 winner said on Saturday.
He'll now speak with BMC to find out if they remain confident in his ability to win the world's biggest bike race again.
"We'll see what they want to do.
"But for now at least I've had a season with two grand tours which was what I was missing for a few years and that gives me a really good base of racing for next year."
Orica-GreenEdge admitted the Australian team was in "survival mode" on stage 20 even though Simon Clarke was in the early break.
But they will ride into Paris thrilled with their second-year performance.
Simon Gerrans won the third stage and took yellow the next day when Orica-GreenEdge won the team time trial.
The Victorian passed the race leader's jersey to teammate Daryl Impey after the sixth stage and the South African kept it until the race hit the Pyrenees.
Michael Rogers (Saxo-Tinkoff) remains the best-placed Australian after stage 20. He's in 16th position almost 30 minutes down.
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