Cannondale-Drapac will begin the 2017 WorldTour at the Tour Down Under with a seven-man roster that includes the 2013 overall winner and the rider who had a break-out fifth-place performance last year during his WorldTour debut.
Tom-Jelte Slagter, who won the Tour Down Under overall in 2013 with Blanco Cycling, will join forces with Michael Woods, the Canadian neo-pro who shocked the peloton with a third-place finish in last year's Queen stage and fifth overall. The duo will be joined in Australia by Paddy Bevin, Brendan Canty, Will Clarke, Alex Howes abd Tom Van Asbroeck.
The same lineup will also race the People’s Choice Classic on January 15 in Adelaide and again on January 29 at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, now a WorldTour event. The Tour Down Under begins January 17 in Unley and concludes January 22 in Adelaide.
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For Woods, the race is chance to claim the podium spot he missed out on last year.
“Last year I knew I was in really good form and Jonathan Vaughters told me, ‘We're going to make you the guy for Down Under,'" Woods said. "I was super-stoked about that. In retrospect, that was crazy that JV just was like, 'Dude, I'm going to give this rookie a shot at a WorldTour race,’ with no experience whatsoever, but it panned out awesome. I think when the guys saw my name as one of the leaders in the pre-race e-mail they were probably thinking, 'Um, this is a really bad idea.'"
Woods rewarded Vaughters' faith with a top performance, however, including a third-place finish on the Queen stage behind Richie Porte (BMC) and Sergio Henao (Team Sky).
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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