After being held back from racing the Tour Down Under in his neo-pro season in 2015, Orica-GreenEDGE have confirmed that Caleb Ewan will race the Tour Down Under in 2016. After ten wins in 2015 and a Vuelta stage, the 21 year old will be on the hunt to start 2016 with a bang.

“At the moment it looks like we’ll be going there (TDU) with him,” White told the Herald Sun newspaper. “I think we’ll be able to cover all bases. We’ve got a busy summer — Bay Crits, nationals, Down Under, Cadel’s Race and Sun Tour so when we finalise our plans for who goes where, I think we’ve got the guys to tick all those boxes.”

Simon Gerrans will look for a fourth title overall Down Under and can also win the Cadel Road Race. For the national road race, OGE once lined up 17 riders on the circuit in Bunninyong, but this year they only will have nine starters, with two of them being used to riding track not road races as Alex Edmondson and Michael Hepburn prepare for the Olympics.

While the Tour Down Under hasn’t announced any of its line-up yet, Gerrans will battle with BMC’s defending champion Rohan Dennis and teammate Richie Porte, former winner and ex-Orica rider Cam Meyer (Dimension Data), former podium finisher Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida), Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) and AG2R’s Domenico Pozzovivo for the overall. Sprint wise, Ewan may be a hot favourite as Andre Greipel will once again miss the race, meaning he is up against riders like Matteo Pelucchi, Giacomo Nizzolo, Wouter Wippert and Mark Renshaw. Marcel Kittel is expected to ride, but is not normally in a condition to contest the sprints in January.