Cadel Evans says that he hopes the promotion of his eponymous race will help boost the reputation of Australian cycling on the world scene. The Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race was one of 10 races to be added to the WorldTour for 2017, thus giving Australia two races the highest ranking in the cycling calendar.
"We're not exactly opening a new nation because we have the Tour Down Under already as a race in Australia. I hope that having the one-day race following on from the Tour Down Under will complement it and will be better for cycling in Australia, but also the internationalisation of cycling," Evans told Cyclingnews.
"In Australia, we already have a developed culture of cycling, we have a big spectator base, and I think that the crowds at the first edition showed that and that is something we want to improve."
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The women's road race will remain at the same level for the 2017 season, but the hope is that it too will join the ranks of WorldTour soon enough. The men's race will move to an earlier slot than its first two editions, putting it the weekend after the conclusion of the Tour Down Under.
As the current rules stand, all WorldTour teams will not be obliged to compete, but the promotion and the proximity to the Tour Down Under should ensure a stronger field. Evans hopes that it will also secure the race's future for the foreseeable future.
"We always worked to have the best race that we could and the highest quality race that we could. For us, as a race organiser, it gives us a much more assurance of the quality of riders that will come and the quality of teams that will come," he said. "We come in as a new race, but that means that we can come in with new ideas and new concepts, in terms of the weekend that we do, and I think that has worked well. The fact that we're going into the WorldTour is confirmation of that.
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