A new season of racing once again starts in Australia, with the repeating pattern of National Championships, Santos Tour Down Under and then the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race forming the backbone of the nation’s summer of cycling but with some fine-tuning to add new elements into the mix.
For a start the AusCycling Road National Championships has left its long-time home of Ballarat to go west for the next three years, a decision which may tinker with the race dynamics for a whole generation of riders that have only chased the green and gold bands in Victoria.
Then it's onto a landmark Tour Down Under, where the winners of the last two races – Stephen Williams and Jay Vine – will be back to battle it out on what is expected to be a challenging route for the 25th edition. The women's peloton will have an added day of racing in South Australia with the Schwalbe Women’s One-Day Classic.
