The Swiss-based BMC Racing Team confirmed on Monday it had signed Evans to a three-year contract, after the Australian was released from Silence-Lotto by "mutual agreement''.

Also hired include former world champion Alessandro Ballan, US champion George Hincapie, Karsten Kroon and Marcus Burghardt.

No doubt Evans, who lives close to the Swiss-Italian border with his Italian wife, Chiara, and is virtually regarded as a local, will get a lot more help from this lot when climbing the Alps and Pyranees.

Here's mud in your eye

SOME of our best local cross-country runners have a real challenge (pictured right) on their hands in December: the staging of the inaugural Mud Run.

Not just 12 kilometres of hills through the beautiful native forests of Glenworth Valley, but bog holes, mud-pits and waist-high mud rivers.

And just when you think you've made the finish line, there's a 20-metre wide mud pit to negotiate!

"It is a wacky race popular overseas, but this will be the first for Australia,'' said event organiser Gary Farebrother of Maximum Adventure.

Big hitters assemble

HURSTVILLE Golf Course hosts its first Pro-Am in decades this Sunday and the likes of Ken Rosewall, Jack Newton and Dragons' captain Ben Hornby are among the celebrities playing.

Simply because they are good hitters in their own right, they could capture as much attention as some of the senior pros, like Oatley's own Wayne "Radar'' Riley, Peter OMalley, Mike Ferguson, and Randall Vines.

"In fact Benny would be the best golfer of all the rugby league stars,'' said co-tournament organiser, Phill Bates.