Armstrong finished third in this year's Tour de France at age 37, his first since retiring following his unprecedented seventh straight win in 2005.

"He's going to be bigger and more dangerous than in 2009 _ we'll see Armstrong at another level in 2010," Evans told the Australian Associated Press on Wednesday during a promotional tour in Australia.

Texan Armstrong has left the Kazakh-backed Astana and will be the main rider for the new ProTour squad Team RadioShack.

Evans has also switched teams, the 32-year-old Australian leaving Belgium-based Silence-Lotto earlier this month for new American squad BMC.

He was 30th in the Tour de France this season after runner-up finishes in 2007 and '08, but got his year back on track by finishing third in the Tour of Spain and then winning the road race world championship at Switzerland in late September.

Both Armstrong and Evans will compete in the Tour Down Under in Adelaide, South Australia state, in January. Cancer-survivor Armstrong made his competitive comeback in the same Australian race this year.

Evans' team BMC has been given a wild-card entry for the Jan. 17-24 Tour Down Under.

Evans conceded he'd taken a risk signing with a new team, which will also need a wild card to race the Tour de France, but there were many benefits.

"BMC, they're not a big team now, but they're growing _ for me, to join a team as they're growing is an interesting project," he said. "They have everything in place to be a very good team and that's really what I'm looking for, the core values and philosophies.

"Maybe I will miss out on the Tour, but we have all the capabilities to prove we deserve a place."