trying to get a nice, hot bath." Evans said immediately following the tour that he was unsure of how his win would be received in Australia, saying "I haven't had time to consider that aspect, to be honest. It's been a long, long process and it will take a long time to realise what it means. A few people always believed in me and they're the people that matter the most. We did it. It's been a real pleasure these past three weeks." At a homecoming parade held on his return to Australia, tens of thousands of people turned out, many dressed in yellow and waving yellow flags, in Melbourne's Federation Square. A state reception was held in his honour. 2012 In March, Evans won the overall classification of the 2.HC Critérium International, a three-stage race. He was victorious on the second stage, a individual time trial, and held on to his lead in the final stage, grabbing the Points classification jersey. Evans also took a prestigious victory on stage 1 of the Critérium du Dauphiné after attacking on the last descent, catching and out sprinting the two men who were at the front of the race, Jérôme Coppel () and Andrey Kashechkin (). Evans finished in third position in the general classification, with the points classification jersey on his shoulders. Evans started the Tour de France with high hopes of a repeat performance from 2011. On stage 7, Evans showed great form by finishing second atop La Planche des Belles Filles, registering the same time as rival Bradley Wiggins of , the latter grabbing the yellow jersey. Evans then lost a substantial amount of time on the ninth stage individual time trial, coming in sixth place with a deficit of one minute and forty-three seconds on the winner Wiggins. He suffered another setback in the high mountain stage from Albertville to La Toussuire-Les Sybelles (stage 11), where he tried a daring attack with teammate Tejay van Garderen away from the summit of the Col de la Croix de Fer with almost to go in the race. The attempted escape failed and he was subsequently dropped on the slopes leading to La Toussuire, being unable to follow the pace set by Chris Froome. He lost another minute and 26 seconds to the race leader. Stage 14 saw Evans puncture three times as tacks had been thrown on the road, with