Ballarat > Ballarat 186.6km

Well, well, well, it’s time for another season of bike racing. The off-season has been the craziest yet, with the unsuccessful Visma/Quick Step merger, Roglič leaving Visma, the whole Cian Uijtdebroeks thing and the surprising end of GCN+. I’m delighted the talking can stop and the racing can start, it’s time for the Aussie Road Race.

The route is the usual one, 16 laps of the Ballarat circuit which features Mount Buninyong. 3385m of climbing isn’t the hardest race in the world, but this is always a selective race, thanks to the timing of it and the heat. Plapp is back to see if he can win for the third consecutive year, which would be a new record for back-to-back wins. He’s switched over to Jayco AlUla in the winter, a move that only increases his chances of rewriting the history books.

Circuit

You’ll have seen it many times, the lap is basically the Buninyong climb, followed by quite a lot of descending. The hill is 2.8km at 5.2%, with a maximum of 9.6%. It doesn’t sound too hard, but it always does a significant amount of damage in the last two or three laps. The issue is, it’s not long enough to create gaps between the very best, a solo move is very rare.

Weather

Bloody hell, it looks like rain and wind. I don’t ever recall a wet Aussie road race. The wind will be around 15-35km/h, and its headwind for the 2nd half of the climb, perfect for any fast men who want to challenge for the win. The rain should be at its worst towards the end of the race and the temperature will be mid 20s.