Much has been made of the Tour Down Under's pulling power following the announcement Tour de France champion Chris Froome would be starting his season at the Jayco Herald Sun Tour and confirmation Mark Cavendish is to make his Dimension Data debut at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in the week following the WorldTour event.
Despite its status as one of just 13 WorldTour stage races on the premier calendar of men's racing, the Tour Down Under is in competition with its Australian rivals and Argentina's 2.1 Tour de San Luis which has attracted a start list featuring the likes of Nairo Quintana, Vincenzo Nibali and world champion Peter Sagan.
"As organisers, we are extremely happy with the start list," said Turtur of the 140 starters at the pre-race press conference which includes a lengthy list of Australian WorldTour riders. "The quality sitting up here [Caleb Ewan, Geraint Thomas, Rohan Dennis, ed], I think if any organiser throughout the world had our start list, they'd be pretty happy. The decision of riders and teams to send riders wherever they go, is their decision.
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"All we can do is put on a quality race and make the conditions as best we can. As an organiser, I am delighted with the field we have this year."
In previous years, the Tour Down Under has seen Cadel Evans and Philippe Gilbert appear at the race in the rainbow bands of the world champion while Alberto Contador regards his 2005 stage win as one the most important in his career.
Turtur added that races below WorldTour with point one or hors catergorie ranking enjoy a freedom that he does not in selecting teams and riders.
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