For Brendan Canty, his rise to the top of pro cycling has been supersonic, with 2015 being spent with Australian Continental team Budget Forklifts before riding with Drapac this year and now, 2017 sees a move to the top tier with Cannondale-Drapac.

"It is obviously a dream to have been given the opportunity and I didn't have any hesitations at all," Canty told Cyclingnews. "Particularly for me, moving through with Michael Drapac and his team is something I am really looking forward to given that I have stagiaired with him for two years and then ridden full-time with his team this year. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity and extremely excited for what the future holds."

While much has been made of the fact that Cannondale and Drapac have merged for the 2017 season, it is highly likely Canty would have been a WorldTour pro regardless after his stellar form in early 2016.

He placed seventh overall and was best young rider in Oman before taking second at the Oceania Road Race. Fifth in the queen stage at the Azerbaijan Tour was followed with eighth on GC and a win on the Sonntagberg in the Tour of Austria.

"For me, that was probably my highlight of the season," he said of the Sonntagberg. "My ride in Tour of Oman to win the young riders jersey and compete against some of the bigger names was also good, but there is no better feeling than taking the top step of the podium. Austria is renowned for being quite a tough race and a mountainous race and I think the way in which I won that stage, hitting the bottom of the climb together with the main bunch and riding off to the win was pretty special. I definitely think that was a big step in terms of my year in Europe and hopefully I can use that moving forward next year as a bit of a confidence booster and a reminder of the feeling of winning a race."

Canty has already met with his future DSs and admitted some of them didn’t know who he was, but says he feels their chat went well and while he has no clue where he will race in 2017, he hopes to begin the year on home soil.

"For me, I would really like to do the Australian racing before I head overseas. So if I can do the Tour Down Under and the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race that would be a good introduction to 2017 for me with the team considering I am an Australian rider and I can start training pretty early here. There are a few other races that have been mentioned to me that will potentially be on the calendar next year but obviously at this early stage it is pretty hard to know exactly what I will be doing. Things always tend to change so you just have to be prepared for that and make sure I am right to do when I need to be."