Drapac Professional Cycling will take on the UCI 2.1 Herald Sun Tour next week. The team will be very motivated and will try to win the race overall. The event on home soil will start the 5th of February and end the 9th of February.

The team was very close to winning the race in 2011, when Rhys Pollock wore the leader’s jersey until the queen stage of the race. He ended up as sixth and that was also the position Will Walker earned himself last year.

Directeur Sportif Agostino Giramondo says that he knows the pressure the team will be operating under, but he is still optimistic though.

“We’ve always performed well at the Sun Tour but we’re yet to win one,” he said. “Hopefully this year with a better roster and a better training block leading into the three Australian events – Nationals, Tour Down Under and the Sun Tour – we can hopefully perform at the level needed to be in contention for the overall win,” he says to the Drapac website.

The line-up for the race, which starts with a prologue, will be Jack Anderson, Jonathan Cantwell, Will Clarke, Jordan Kerby, Darren Lapthorne and Lachie Norris. Kerby, who arrived to the team ahead of this season from Christina-Watches, won the 2013 prologue. This year, Kerby took the Australian Under-23 Time Trial Championship and he is hopeful of another solid result.

“I’m in pretty good shape coming off the nationals,” Kerby said. “I kicked back a little bit afterwards and then ramped up the training again. The Sun Tour starts with a 2.5km prologue in Melbourne. I’m excited for that because it’s what I like to do. It’s nice and technical so it should be exciting for the crowds.”

Giramondo believes that the aggressive style of racing that has so far been on show from Drapac this season, starting with the Nationals and Tour Down Under, will once again be a feature at the Herald Sun Tour.

“It’s a very attacking team,” he said.

Will Clarke is looking forward to the prologue and thinks it is an advantage that it is so short of km.

“With a week of rest I will freshen up and be ready to go again at the Sun Tour next Wednesday night,” the 28-year-old explained. “I’m looking forward to the Prologue and seeing what I can do; it’s not often you get to do a 2.5km stage. It will only probably be a three-minute effort so it will be full gas and hopefully I can do alright,” Clarke said.

Giramondo says that the race most likely will be decided on stage 2 into the town of Bendigo.

“It will be a very demanding day,” he explained. “It hasn’t got big hills with the exception of Mount Alexander towards the end but I think by that stage the race will have taken a bit of form and shape and Mount Alexander will be just the icing on the cake.”

As in 2013, the Herald Sun Tour will wrap up with three ascents of Arthurs Seat on the Mornington Peninsula.

“You could still have maybe 10 or 15 riders within a minute at Arthurs Seat and I think it will still be an open race up until then,” he concluded.