Even though Michael Hepburn has two years of racing as a professional cyclist under his belt, the 2014 season has to be treated as a fresh start for the 22-year old Australian, as he made a decision of putting his successful career on the track on hold in order to fully concentrate on road cycling.

Like many other professional road cyclists originating from Australia, Hepburn developed his career in its early stages primarily on the track, having an impressive winning streak in that discipline since he has won the individual pursuit as a Junior in Moscow in 2009. Riding two years for Orica-GreenEDGE, the young rider recognized that track activities has taken too much of his time and attention previous seasons, and thus decided not to defend his rainbow jerseys in both team and individual pursuit, kicking-off his road season exceptionally early instead.

Being a highly successful rider on the track regarding his young age, Hepburn decided that all activities connected with racing on the velodrome are making it impossible for him to become fully prepared for the spring classics campaign, while the young Australian seeks for significant improvement in this area.

The timing seems to be just right, as there are still two and a half years before the next Olympic Games. However, the young Australian admits that it remains undecided whether he would come back to the track racing and on what terms.

"In terms of the track, I'm not really sure of what lies ahead, I'm just looking forward to racing with my teammates on the road a bit more this year," he said.

The newly crowned Australian ITT national champion was never able to kick-off his road season that early, as he debuted this year in the windy Tour of Qatar, where he aims to show off his skills in racing against the clock as well as gain new experiences connected with competing in the difficult weather conditions.

"It feels like a bit of a new beginning. I've never started this early but I think Qatar will be good preparation for the next few races," Hepburn told Cyclingnews in Al Wakra on Sunday.

"It's definitely something that I've looked at and I've done a few sessions to prepare for it, but in this race, it's not like you can just take it easy for the first couple of days and arrive at the time trial fresh," Hepburn said, adding that his priority in Qatar and Oman is simply to get a solid block of racing in his legs.

"In terms of my development as well it's important for me to race every day hard and take as much as I can from guys like Mat Hayman. The time trial is a goal, but I'm really looking forward to testing myself in these racing conditions as well."

While the racing in the Persian Gulf is over, Hepburn will head to Europe to participate in Paris-Nice and continue on gaining an experience on cobbled roads of the northern Belgium and France. Even though 22-year old Australian apparently won’t make it to the Orica-GreenEDGE rosters for Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix, he is still eager to test his potential in the smaller events of that period, as it would be the first time for him to compete there with some significant kilometers from road racing already accumulated in his legs.

"I'm not down for Flanders and Roubaix, but I'll do some of the semi-Classics before them. Last year, I did Dwars door Vlaanderen and De Panne, but they were my first races of the season so I was a little bit underdone," he said.

"Still, I really enjoyed the racing and the style, and I think it's the type of racing I can do well in one day. The more racing I do there now, the better."

Apart from improving his time trialing skills and clocking up more experience on the cobbled Road of the northern Europe, Hepburn would like to have his legs tested in the grand tour race in 2014. However, it seems quite clear that the mind of the Brisbane-born rider would be mostly set on learning throughout the whole season, and he certainly should be the one to watch once he gets his homework done properly.

"I haven't picked any particular race or day that I would like to win, although I'd like to ride a Grand Tour, ride the team time trial at the Worlds and keep progressing in the Belgian races," he said.

"There are a few goals but there isn't really one day that I'm looking for in particular."