And just like that the off-season is done and dusted, the Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic has been raced and won and the Cycling Australia Road National Championships are upon us. The Victorian town of Ballarat hosts the Australian championships for a tenth year this week with the Bunninyong course remaining the parcours of choice to decide the national road champions. The Stuart St criterium titles open the championships on Wednesday course on a course familiar to fans and riders alike while the time trials will be contested on the Bunninyong course which made a successful debuted last year.
Ahead of the 2016 Cycling Australia Road National Championships, Cyclingnews has looked through the start lists to bring you our five riders to watch.
Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) Elite Men's road race
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As a two-time winner and leader of the Orica-GreenEdge team, Simon Gerrans will start Sunday's 183km elite men's road race with a target on his back. Some riders will simply be out to stop Gerrans adding to his already lengthy palmares. Strong legs and negative tactics from rivals have come up short before as it takes something special to beat the 34-year-old on one of his favourite circuits in cycling.
Gerrans missed the 2015 titles with a broken collarbone, sustained in a pre-Christmas mountain bike, that then ruled him out of the entire Australian summer of cycling and what became a season to forget. Having failed to claim the gold medal for the first time in its short history, Orica-GreenEdge are hungry to make amends for 2015 and bring a strong squad to ensure it goes home happy.
Gerrans is the trump card for the team on the challenging 10.2km Bunninyong circuit, which the peloton will complete 18 laps of, but in Caleb Ewan have an in-form joker card to play. 2013 national champion Luke Durbridge is forgoing the time trial and adds another avenue to victory. Sports director Matt White is adamant the team take home the jersey and with a high-quality nine-rider team selected for the race, the story will be, who can stop Gerro?
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