Australian WorldTour team Orica-Scott and half American, half Australian WorldTour outfit Cannondale-Drapac have both named their squads for this week's Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race one-day race and the inaugural Towards Zero criterium race on Albert Park's F1 circuit.
The Towards Zero criterium race will be held over 116km with a bunch sprint the expected outcome in the heart of Melbourne before the peloton heads south to Geelong for Sunday's 174km one-day race with a challenging parcours expected to see a smaller group contest for the win.
Fresh from four stage wins at the Tour Down Under and pre-race People's Choice Classic, Caleb Ewan is aiming to add his his early-season tally of wins at the Australia Day criterium for Orica-Scott and conclude his 'sumer of cycling' on a high.
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"Caleb was unbeatable at the Santos Tour Down Under and he will be the man to beat at Race Melbourne," Orica's director sportif Matt Wilson said of the team aims. "We have a good strong team around him to back him and there’s no doubt about it we are going into this race to win."
Ewan won't be able to call upon Roger Kluge and Darly Impey for the leadout as he did at the Tour Down Under with New Zealander Sam Bewley and Australian Michael Hepburn coming in as replacements. For Sunday's road race, Mitch Docker and Luke Durbridge come into the team that is aiming for the victory with Simon Gerrans and Esteban Chaves as its two trump cards.
"We've got a strong team giving us options, different cards to play and we're expecting it to be another hard race like the previous two years," Wilson added of the race which is elevated to WorldTour status from 2017. "It's a really aggressive sort of race and it is quite unpredictable especially on those final hilly laps. We have a really good team, a lot of these guys have already had many race days so we are ready for a solid race."
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