The start of the New Year is eagerly anticipated by many but especially cycling fans, as the new cycling season starts off in Australia with a month long schedule.
Bay Crits
Racing starts on the opening day of the year with the four day Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic series in Victoria. Two time winner Caleb Ewan is the leading favourite for the men’s race, however with strong squads competing from the National Road Series will definitely be looking to get their own glory at some stage over the four fast paced stages.
Australian National Championships
A week later is the Australian National Championships which will be once again held around hilly surrounds of Ballarat. The main events of the Championships include both the mens and women’s individual time trials and road races.
In a major step for women’s cycling, the elite road race has been moved to the Sunday, preceding the means race, and will have the final one hour of racing broadcast.
The women’s race you would think will be once again dominated by the punchier riders, with Tiffany Cromwell and Gracie Elvin two of the strongest contenders.
In the men’s race, l cannot look past Simon Gerrans if he is on form. He can sprint, he can stick with the natural climbers on the gradual main climb on the course, and he has performed extremely well on this course.
Tour Down Under
The main jewel in Australia’s summer of cycling is the World Tour event, the Tour Down Under, which will start in the middle of January. The race held predominantly in the Adelaide hills will once again be hotly contested.
With the return of Simon Gerrans, who missed last year’s race due to injury, Richie Porte who is now at BMC alongside last year’s winner Rowan Dennis, the chances of an Australian winning their home race is high, however, there are a strong contingent of overseas riders capable of challenging.
Riders including Domenico Pozzovivo, Diego Ulissi, Louis Meintjes, Geriant Thomas and Ryder Hesjedal are just some of the riders who will be in contention for the general classification.
In terms of the sprinters, Andre Griepel will not be racing as he has done in previous years, thus leading to a wide open set of results on the sprint stages. I am looking forward to see if Leigh Howard can show himself as the quality sprinter that he is at his new team IAM Cycling, after a below par season last year, whilst Wouter Wippert moves to the World Tour with Cannondale Garmin, after winning the final stage of the race last year.
Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race
Last year’s inaugural Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race was a cracking event, with crosswinds blowing the race to bits with a long time left remaining in the race, meaning that once the race got down to the final few laps of the extremely demanding course, only the strongest riders could show themselves.
Again this year the race is back, and with a strong selection of teams once again, including new team Dimension Data (formerly MTN Qhubeka) who are bringing their new sprinter Mark Cavendish to the race, it should be an extremely exciting race.
Jayco Herald Sun Tour
The final race on the calendar is the Jayco Herald Sun Tour, which starts on the streets of Melbourne with a short prologue.
With the final stage of the race climbing the step sections of Arthur Seat, one Tour De France champion Chris Froome may come into his own and show local cycling fans what they are missing out on when watching him grace our television screens.
It should bring to an end an exciting month of racing and signal the start of the much awaited European season.
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