CYCLING:AUSTRALIA CELEBRATED its first Tour de France champion yesterday with the achievement of Cadel Evans being ranked alongside the greatest moments in the country's rich sporting history.

With plenty of time to sharpen their pencils after Evans destroyed Andy Schleck in Saturday’s time trial in Grenoble to assure himself of victory, the country’s media was dominated by the story of the slender 34-year-old’s triumph.

“King Cadel” trumpeted the front page of Melbourne’s Age, and the Sydney Morning Herald led with a banner headline “Joy and agony of a champion” above a large picture of Evans all contained in a yellow box.

“Tour de Champ” raved Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, while the Australian was the only major newspaper to lead on the Norway massacre with Evans – the “Tour champion 13 years in the making” – down the front page.

Many compared Evans’ breakthrough triumph to Australia winning sailing’s America’s Cup in 1983 to end the 132-year monopoly of the trophy by the US.

“This is a historic day for Evans and a monumental day in the history of Australian cycling and sport in general,” said Mike Turtur, an Olympic champion track cyclist and race director of the Tour Down Under.

“Cadel Evans also showed that he is a pretty special athlete, blessed with a very big motor . . . this achievement by Evans puts him . . . right up there with what we as a nation have achieved across any number of other sports at the Olympics, world championships and winning the America’s Cup.”

Turtur, who said he would be delighted if Evans were to race in the Tour Down Under next year, said the fact he had achieved what he had without drugs was significant.

“It was done with true grit, a great deal of guts and a panache to prove to the world you can win the biggest race in the world while riding clean,” Turtur said.

“What Evans has done is to send a massive clear message to the idiots who still want to dope, and not just in cycling.”

Although Evans was the oldest winner of cycling’s most prestigious race since the second World War, a leading Australian cycling coach thinks he could repeat his triumph.

Evans also became the first rider from the Southern Hemisphere to win cycling’s biggest event. Runner-up in 2007 and 2008, Evans, at 34, is the oldest winner since Henri Pelissier, who was a month older when he finished first in 1923.

“There is longevity if you’re looking after yourself, which Cadel does, he does everything right,” Dave Sanders of the Victorian Institute of Sport, where Evans made the switch from mountain bikes to road racing in 2001, said.

“He could have another couple in him, for sure – whether he wants to. This was the great landmark in his mind . . . this is what he’s lived for.”

Australia’s government granted a national holiday after the 1983 America’s Cup triumph, but Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she would not be marking Evans’ achievement in the same way.

“I do want to say a very big congratulations to Cadel Evans,” she said in Hobart. “I had the opportunity this morning to speak and to personally offer my congratulations. I believe I disturbed him while he was trying to get a nice, hot bath.”

Meanwhile, Qatar, buoyed by a successful bid to stage the 2022 soccer World Cup, is interested in staging the start of the 2016 Tour de France.

State-owned Qatar Airways was the official airline for this year’s Tour.

Next year’s race will depart from Liege, Belgium, while Corsica is set to kick off the 100th Tour in 2013.

In 2007, it began in London, in 2010 it was in Rotterdam while Florence is bidding to become the first Italian city to stage the Grand Depart in 2014.

Barcelona, Edinburgh and cities in England, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria have expressed an interest in holding starts.

None of those include the logistical and meteorological challenge of a start in the Middle East, where the searing July heat would pose a challenge for the riders and almost certainly ensure a short stage or time trial.

“I think there are options to manage it. We can have a small prologue, not too long, with water sprayed at certain points. There is no technical problem with doing it here,” a source said, confirming that the bid would be for 2016, not 2014 as reported on some websites.

The Abu Dhabi international triathlon, featuring a 200km bike leg, has been held in the UAE in March since 2010 and attracts many of the world’s best triathletes.

This year temperatures were way above the seasonal norm and many top riders struggled.