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Any race director in world cycling would love to host the field assembled for the men’s time trial at the Australian road championships.
Three-time world champion Michael Rogers, Richie Porte, defending champion Michael Hepburn and two-time winner Cameron Meyer will contest Thursday’s event at Buninyong, near Ballarat.
They’re joined by Luke Durbridge, Jack Bobridge, Damian Howson and current champion Campbell Flakemore, who have all won the under-23 world time trial title.
Add in Rohan Dennis who finished fifth in the event at last year’s world championships.
The only top Australian time trialler missing is Cadel Evans, who will concentrate on Sunday’s road race.
Porte agreed the field was probably unmatched for competitiveness.
“Obviously there’s Tony Martin, Brad Wiggins and Fabian Cancellara, the best time triallers in the world (not here),” Porte said.
“But for depth, I don’t know of any that would be close to what we have here for this race.”
Porte finished fourth in the nationals time trial two years ago, but missed last year’s event when he focussed on the road race and finished third behind Evans and winner Simon Gerrans.
But this time he has been working on his time trial position during the off-season.
“It’s not my sort of time trial, it will probably suit some of the bigger guys,” Porte said of the undulating course.
“But I’m here, I’m fit and I may as well be in there and give it a crack.”
The weather could also be a factor, with rain forecast for Thursday.
Porte knows not to read too much into January form – he was flying this time a year ago but ill health then destroyed his plans for the season.
“It’s a long season and it’s easy to be caught up with the whole nationals and Tour Down Under thing,” he said.
“But by March, when you’re back in Europe, racing Paris-Nice, you forget all about the Australian start of the season.
“For me, it’s a big goal to be good here.
“I’ve had two months in Tassie training, more working on getting my health right.”
Porte had to pull out of the Giro d’Italia because of illness and then struggled through the Tour de France after a promising start to that race.
It later emerged he was suffering from pneumonia.
“Cadel used to say he wanted one Grand Tour where nothing goes wrong,” Porte said.
“For me, I just want another season like I had two years ago, when I was healthy, and I think the results will come then.”
Thursday will also feature the men’s under-23 and women’s time trial events.
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