Michael Hepburn enjoyed a good 2014 season, taking his first national time trial win, as well as his first pro win in the Tour of Qatar TT and riding his first Grand Tour at the Giro, plus finishing his first two Monuments, Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.

"In the past I've started I've started on the track and started on the road a little bit late," Hepburn said. "Following the start with Qatar and Oman, I did a lot of WorldTour races, I did my first Classics stint, my first Grand Tour.”

"The first half of the year was quite busy and full on with racing, then I had a break through the middle of the year and started building up for the team time trial like I had in previous years. I was pretty happy with the season, of course parts went really well and parts which weren't so good, but all in all, I was satisfied with the year that was."

He pointed out that his win in the Australian TT, taking the title from teammate Luke Durbridge was a big win for him.

"It was a big one for me, I worked pretty hard for a couple of months before that," Hepburn said of the win. "It's the first race you do of the year, it's the national championships so you get to wear the jersey. For me it was also the first time trial I'd won, I only won a prologue before (2011 Tour de l’Avenir.”

Then, in his first race in the jersey, he beat the favourites to win the TT in Qatar.

"It was the first time wearing the jersey in Qatar there, I think it was only three or four weeks after nationals, I'd had the training camp between those two races and I was feeling really good," he said.

"I saw that the race was 10km and on road bikes so I targeted it a few weeks beforehand and it paid off with a victory there."

Then after the races out of Europe, it was time to return to the battle worn roads of Europe for his first ever Classics campaign.

"I'd only done De Panne and Dwars door Vlaanderen, I hadn't done Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, which I was about to do but I didn't really know what to expect. I knew they were some big races and races that I hadn't done before but if you're going well you feel a bit more comfortable and confident about what's coming up."

"I am not sure exactly what races I'll be doing in the future but I think, as a rider, I am suited to those sorts of races," he said to Cyclingnews. "While it may take some time to learn the roads and learn how they are raced, experience is a big thing in Belgium, for sure I am looking forward to doing more of them and hopefully one day doing those races as a contender."

Hepburn faced his biggest challenge yet in May when he headed to Ireland for the start of the Giro d’Italia, and instantly his Orica-Greenedge team found success, winning the team time trial and putting birthday boy Svein Tuft in Pink.

"It was a dream start for the team and we'd said a few weeks before that we were targeting the win in the team time trial. We built the team pretty much around the first day but just to actually win that is another thing and obviously pretty special. Nine days with three stage wins and to have the week in the jersey and really control the race that first week was really cool."

Hepburn then saw the cruelty of a Grand Tour, as his teams great opening week and a bit changed to a horrible last two weeks, with only Tuft and himself finishing the race in Trieste.

"It was a tough week with so many mountains just packed in the last week and I don't go up the hills too well, so it was tough," Hepburn reflected. "After that stage up the Stelvio and Gavia, in those conditions on that terrain, once you got through that, you knew you could get through the rest of the race. We just had to day it day by day, making the time cuts and it was a great feeling getting through that last week.

"A lot of people ask me how it must have been through that last week but in all honesty, Svein and I had each other there, we were rooming together, eating dinner together and then being on the bike together. It brought us a lot closer, and he'd been there and done it all before and he was really good to me and really encouraging, helping me through that last week."

"We had 'DS Matt] Whitey there and Dan Jones and the spirit was still pretty high but that also comes back to the first week that we had. There was no pressure on the team to perform after that first week and Svein and I in the mountains weren't expected to do anything. I enjoyed that last week."

For his 2015, Hepburn wants success in his hoe country again, targeting his nationals before the Tour Down Under and Jayco Herald Sun Tour.

"I am going to be doing the Tour Down Under and Jayco Herald Sun Tour next year so I'll be starting a little bit earlier than Qatar this year and, obviously by the second week of January when the nationals are, you have to be in good condition already, so I hope to be in good condition again."

Then he will ride the Classics before going to the Giro again, where his team will once again target the opening day’s team time trial. Then he will build up to the Richmond World Championships, where Orica will target the team time trial, where they have finished second in each of the last three years.

"The second half of the year will be built mostly around the team time trial Worlds which is one we haven't got yet and we've been close a couple of years now. For that, we have good group that does a lot of racing and training together now. We haven't won it yet so we'll be aiming to win next win."

He also has his eyes on the long 59.2km time trial half way through the Giro next year: "During that middle section of the Giro this year, I wasn't sure how I'd get through it and we were trying to save energy through those middle days so I didn't attack the time trial [at Barolo – ed.] but I hope next year I can have a crack there for sure."