Defending champion Cadel Evans says the Tirreno-Adriatico will provide an early season test for his 35-year-old cycling legs.

The Tour de France winner begins his 2012 campaign in earnest in the seven-day race across Italy, starting on Wednesday with a 16.9km team time trial from San Vincenzo.

Evans has followed his successful blueprint from last year by making a delayed start to the season, designed for him to peak at the Tour de France starting on June 30.

With the London Olympics and world road championships in the Netherlands on his radar, 2012 is looming as a particularly demanding year.

Evans, the oldest Tour de France champion in nearly 90 years, was happy with his preparations for the “race of the two seas”.

“My first goal is to see how my fitness is,” he said.

“I’ve worked reasonably well toward it.

“To repeat last year’s result here would be an ultimate gauge of my fitness.

“But we’ll first test my fitness and then see the result.”

BMC has announced a strong eight-man team for the stage race including Philippe Gilbert, George Hincapie and Marco Pinotti.

Evans used victory in the event 12 months ago as a springboard for wins at the Tour de Romandie and Tour de France.

He said the stage five summit finish at Prati di Tivo (1450m) could be where the race is decided.

“It makes it a real climber’s race because it’s a long climb, maybe 15 kilometres,” Evans said.

“That’s going to change the race from last year a lot and be one of the most important days for the general classification.”

BMC’s assistant director Fabio Baldato said the team had riders for all situations.

“We’ll see day-by-day how things go, but we have riders for all stages and we can even go with some attacks,” Baldato said.

“The finish climb on stage five might just be one for Marco Pinotti.”