If you get a chance during SBS's live coverage of the Tour, take a glance at Cadel Evans's furiously-pedalling feet over the next three weeks. The great Aussie hope will be wearing custom-made shoes emblazoned with imagery of the Australian flag and little kangaroos to boot (excuse the pun). Not getting greedy, OK … Australians are bracing themselves for a possible first Tour win, with Evans carrying the nation's hopes. Also, Evans's Queensland teammate, Robbie McEwen, is aiming for a fourth green jersey win as best sprinter. And Tour rookie and former mountain biker Trent Lowe, a 23-year-old from Victoria, is being flagged as a contender for the white jersey as best young (under-25) rider. Australians taking out three of the four Tour jerseys up for grabs? It is a very real possibility. Stop Badgering us IT has been 23 years since a Frenchman won the Tour. You have to go back to 1985, when Bernard Hinault won his fifth title. But you wouldn't guess it walking around Brittany, Hinault's home provence and the Tour's starting point. Shops are filled with re-launched photo specials and books on the man known as " Le Blaireau " (the Badger). You would have thought he was the defending Tour champion. Quote of the day "There is a change in the wind, a change in the spirit. What happens, I don't know. Hopefully this will be a fun Tour … a Tour that won't turn into a negative quagmire." Garmin-Chipotle team manager Jonathan Vaughters, whose team is one of a handful to follow internal anti-doping testing measures, believes the problem of doping in cycling is finally on the wane. Today on the Tour

Stage 1: Brest to Plumelec, 197.5km With no prologue time trial to start the Tour, the chance to claim the yellow jersey will be wide open in this run through Brittany. A hilly, twisting course ends with an uphill finish. Good for an attacking rider to escape near the finish. On the box Stage 1 live on SBS from 10pm tonight.