Caleb Ewan is an unknown entity heading into the Worlds road race. The young Aussie sprinter has always been fast, but he is relatively unproven over 250km, which is why Michael Matthews will lead the team.

"This will be my longest race. I did Paris-Tour the other day, which was 250km so it's similar, but this will be just a bit longer," Ewan told Cyclingnews. "It's a bit hotter and a bit windier," he added that the conditions would be somewhat different to the ones he faced in France last weekend.

After a successful Australian summer in January, Ewan struggled to win in Europe but won the 220km long Vatenfall Cyclassics after Bouhanni was DQ’ed and then took a stage in the Tour of Britain, showing his pre Worlds form.

Matthews has shown good shape too, with third in RideLondon just a week after finishing the Tour, where he won a stage and was third in the Green Jersey competition. After that, fourth in Plouay and fifth and fourth in Quebec and Montreal followed.

"To be honest, it's probably going to be more for him than me, and it's stupid not to back a guy like that who has proved himself in the World Championships and long, hard races," Ewan said. "I haven't really proved myself in races that are 250 kilometres plus. I think it is more about the experience of me being here. Any experience I can get now is going to help me in the future so that's more what it is about for me.”

Despite struggling to win initially in Europe this season, Ewan says he is still satisfied with his 2016 season.

"It's been a pretty good year; I still look back on it and think that it could have been a little bit better in some areas, but I can't complain. It has been a big year stepping up to more WorldTour level races and harder races for me. Last year, I won more races, but they were smaller races. It was always going to be hard to step up to more of the WorldTour level races. I think that I did it reasonably well so I can be happy."