After four years as one of the most loyal domestiques at Team Sky, Mathew Hayman has decided to head back to Australia to be part of the first WorldTour team of his home country, Orica-GreenEDGE. However, there are no retirement plans yet for the Australian who remains as ambitious as ever as he takes on a road captaincy role with his new squad.

For years, Mathew Hayman has been known as one of the strongest workhorses in the peloton. During a long career with Rabobank and more recently during his four years at Team Sky, he has spent countless of hours on the front of the peloton working for some of cycling's biggest stars.

Hayman may have mostly been working for others but he has often proved that he is a very capable bike rider himself. His domains are the cobbled classics where he has often excelled and has a 4th place in the 2009 Gent-Wevelgem, 3rd place in the 2013 Dwars Door Vlaanderen, 3rd place in the 2011 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, and 8th place in the 2012 Paris-Roubaix on his palmares.

When Australia got its first ever WorldTour team at the start of the 2012 season, Hayman decided to stay loyal at Team Sky and spent another two years working for the British team. At the start of this season, however, he has made the jump back to Australia where he will deliver invaluable experience to a squad that has lost veteran riders like Stuart O'Grady, Baden Cooke, and Allan Davis.

It is a general trend that riders prefer to head home to end their career on a team in their home country but Hayman insists that it is not what he plans to do. In fact, he is as ambitious as ever before and is not contemplating retirement yet.

"I am not backing off, as I am so focused on my cycling at the moment," he told Cyclingnews. "This is not just two years at GreenEdge to ride it out. I am still trying to improve myself and I am still training hard as ever."

Hayman got his career with his new team off to a flying start when he was part of the squad that supported Simon Gerrans in his winning rides in the Australian Nationals Road Race and the Tour Down Under. At Orica-GreenEDGE, the latter event is one of the highlights of the season and to get selected is no mean feat for a newcomer.

"It has been surprisingly easy to slip into the team," he said. "Being selected for the Tour Down Under was a big boost of confidence and everybody wants to ride that race.

"It was a big pressure-cooker for us, but that is why we are here and you're not a professional athlete if you don't want to race the biggest races and best competition."

In the Tour Down Under, Hayman played the role of experienced road captain and that is what the 2006 Commonwealth Games champion will do in a lot of races throughout the year. With the team boasting exciting young talents like the Yates brothers, Johan Esteban Chaves, and later in the year Caleb Ewan, there is a need for rider with Hayman's race knowledge.

Hayman has done most of the biggest races in the world but has only done 6 grand tours, the most recent being the 2010 Giro d'Italia. He has never experienced the magic of the Tour de France and tat is still on the "to-do" list for the 35-year-old.

"The Tour de France is the pinnacle of cycling," he said. "Nobody wants to be in France in the middle of July and not have form. I have a good program and I have to work through that program. If I am one of the nine best riders on my team and there is a spot for me then I promise I will be gunning for it.

"In the end, it's a team decision and I'm a team player, so you have to put the best team on the road in July."

Hayman only won a single race in his time at Team Sky, the 2011 Paris-Bourges.