The 2016 Road World Championships begin on Sunday with a 40kilometre team time trial in Doha, with ORICA-BikeExchange heading to the Middle Esat looking to maintain their excellent record of results in the event.

Two second places, one third place and a fourth over the past four years has seen the Australian outfit establish themselves as one of the consistent teams to beat in the team time trial and will again be targeting a podium finish this time around.

2013 Australian national time trial champion Luke Durbridge will be joined by compatriots Michael Hepburn, Michael Matthews and Alexander Edmondson as the Australian quartet form the backbone of the team.

Canadian Svein Tuft and South African Daryl Impey complete the line up with Chris Juul Jensen the team’s first reserve.

Tuft and Durbridge recently claimed their third victory in the Duo Normand two-man event and will be hoping to carry their form into Sundays contest.

Sport director Matt White is confident of the team’s chances of achieving a good result.

“We have traditionally gone well in this event,” said White. “And we will certainly be looking to be competitive with the objective being a top three finish and amongst the medals, we want to do well and the boys are highly motivated to achieve that goal.

“Obviously here in the desert the conditions will be hot, around 37degrees Celsius, the wind has been mild over the last couple of days and may not play too big a role in proceedings, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared for every eventuality.

“It’s going to be a short yet intense effort over a very fast course of 40kilometres, we are not going into the race as favourites and the competition will certainly be stiff, but as I said before we want to do well and a medal is the objective.”

For the first time in the 89-year history of the Road World Championships, the competition takes place in the Middle East in the city of Doha in Qatar. The week of events starts on Sunday 9th of October with the elite men’s team time trial.

ORICA-BikeExchange at the Road World Championship elite men’s team time trial, (Sunday 9th October 2016):

Luke Durbridge (AUS, WA, 24)

Alexander Edmondson (AUS, SA, 22)

Michael Hepburn (AUS, QLD, 24)

Daryl Impey (RSA, 31)

Chris Juul Jensen (DEN, 26)

Michael Matthews (AUS, ACT, 25)

Svein Tuft (CAN, 38)