Australian standout Cadel Evans will ride in next year's Giro d'Italia, adding another top challenger for Lance Armstrong.

Like Armstrong, Evans - who finished second at the Tour de France the last two years - plans to ride both the Giro and Tour in 2009.

"He's going to turn 32 soon and he has the solidness and balance to do very well," Evans' team manager with Silence Lotto, Roberto Damiani, said yesterday. "At the Giro he's going to race like Contador did this year. He'll wait and play all his cards in the final week."

Armstrong, who is returning in 2009 after three years of retirement, will be riding the Giro for the first time. He has identified Ivan Basso, who is returning from a two-year doping ban, as his top challenger.

Basso won the Giro in 2006. Other former Giro winners slated to race include Danilo Di Luca, Damiano Cunego and Gilberto Simoni.

Carlos Sastre, this year's Tour winner ahead of Evans, has also entered.

Evans finished 14th in the 2002 Giro and wore the leader's pink jersey for one day after the 16th stage.

The 100th anniversary edition of the Giro is scheduled for 9-31 May. The route will be unveiled Saturday in Venice, where it has already been announced that the Giro will start with a team time trial on Venice's Lido.