Later this week ORICA-BikeExchange head to the Tour of Britain motivated for stage victories with a young, but fast, team lineup.

The Australian outfit return to the tour four years after their first and only appearance in 2012 where they walked away with a stage victory and fourth place on the general classification.

With young sprint star Caleb Ewan fresh from his recent win in the Cyclassics Hamburg, the team are confident and prepared for the week, bringing in a strong support squad with a mixture of fast and powerful riders.

“We have a good team to support Ewan,” explained sport director Matt Wilson. “It’s just going to be a big challenge with the high level of competition on the start list for this tour.

"We have a pretty young sprint team but all the guys are in good form so hopefully we can come away with a stage win.”

Lead-out man Luka Mezgec, along with two silver Rio Olympic medalists in the team pursuit, Alex Edmondson and Michael Hepburn, provide the sprint support for Ewan.

Climbers, Amets Txurruka and Rob Power, balance out the six-man team that is prepared for the challenging eight-day tour.

With two stages consisting of over 3000metres of climbing and an individual team time trial stage, the British race is set to be a tough one. With many big named sprinters on the start line, bunch sprint finishes are also predicted to be fiercely contested.

“It is by no means going to be a straight forward tour,” continued Wilson. “There can quite often be bad weather, stressful roads and there are a lot of competitive sprinters going. I expect there will be a lot of bunch sprints and for that we have a fast team to support Ewan.”

The race begins in Scotland with a 161kilometre opening stage before the race weaves its way through the country stopping in Wales before the final city centre circuit race in London on the 11th September.

ORICA-BikeExchange riders at the Tour of Britain:

Alex Edmondson, Caleb Ewan, Michael Hepburn, Luka Mezgec, Robert Power and Amets Txurruka.