(Sean Quentin Lee is a BPL contributor, cycling devotee and freelance journalist.)

While Australian cycling fans can expect to see a plethora of home-bred talent compete at the 2011 Tour Down Under, one notable absence will be former world champion, Cadel Evans.

Evans brought alive the last edition of the race and whipped spectators into a frenzy with a spirited attack over Willunga Hill that was almost (but not quite) enough to give him victory.

But the two-time Tour de France runner up still harbours a burning desire to win cycling's most famous race and will devote his entire 2011 season in preparing for the epic event. Unfortunately for his many Australian fans, this means that the TDU will not be a part of his schedule.

With the granting of ProTour status to his BMC team, Evans is assured of a start in the French race and will take a leaf out of Lance Armstrong's book by focusing all his energies on those three weeks in July. He will cut back his number of race days and forsake the Giro in favour of being as fresh and as well prepared as possible for le Tour.

Another race that will feature on Cadel's schedule for 2011 is the Vuelta. Desperately unlucky not to have won the event outright in 2009, thanks to a puncture and then a botched wheel change by the neutral service vehicle, Evans feels he has some unfinished business with the Spanish race.

While not one to lament bad luck, the Australian knows that misfortune has probably robbed him of being a multiple grand tour winner and it would be a shame if he ended his career without having ever reached the holy grail of stage racing.

He has won just about everything else there is to win - spring classics and the world championship included - but the grand tours continue to elude him. As hard working and ultra competitive as ever, Evans will be doing all he can to rectify this anomaly.

Despite having worn the leader's jersey in all three grand tours, doped up cheats, accidents and injury, a lack of team support and untimely mechanical glitches have all conspired against him in his quest for overall victory. But his attitude and work ethic remain unchallenged.

Although his window of opportunity is slowly closing, the BMC rider still has time to claim his lifelong goal, and only a foolish opponent would write him off as finished.

The Tour Down Under will be raced from January 16-23 in and around Adelaide, and will feature Lance Armstrong in his last professional race outside America.