The Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race will have 12 WorldTour teams on the start line for the men’s event in 2018.
The early season Australian one-day race, created in 2015, moved up to WorldTour status this year and attracted 13 of the 18 WorldTour teams. WorldTour teams aren’t obliged to attend events that are new to cycling’s top tier, but if a race fails to secure at least 10 WorldTour teams it risks losing its status.
Despite the drop, the race announced “the strongest line-up in the event’s history” on Friday, with what it terms the “top five men’s WorldTour teams” in BMC Racing Team, Team Sky, Trek-Segafredo, Team Sunweb and Quick-Step Floors.
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The other WorldTour teams on the start line will be: AG2R La Mondiale, Bora-Hansgrohe, Dimension Data, Katusha-Alpecin, LottoNL-Jumbo, Lotto Soudal, and Mitchelton-Scott. The field of 16 teams will be rounded out by Pro Continental teams Aqua Blue Sport, Israel Cycling Academy, and Roompot, with the final team being an Australian national squad.
“You can see this race is so special to Cadel – so, to line up with his former team, and in one of the first races I’ll be lining up for with BMC Racing Team, is going to be pretty cool,” said 2017 runner-up Simon Gerrans, who has transferred to BMC from Orica-Scott this winter.
Former winners Peter Kennaugh (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Nikias Arndt (Sunweb) will both be back for the 2018 edition, which takes place over 164 kilometres in Geelong on January 28.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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