PREVIEW | Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race 2023 - Matthews, Hayter and Ewan hope for sprint at World Tour's opening one-day race

Giving continuation to the Australian summer racing, the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race is one of the most recent additions to the World Tour calendar. Taking place on the 29th of January, it provides opportunities for both sprinters, puncheurs and classics riders to take an early big win.

The Australian race revolves around the city of Geelong, with deep connections to Cadel Evans. It is a mostly flat race all throughout, before entering the final circuit where the riders will race around on five occasions, and they will have two climbs within it.

The startlist includes riders such as: Mauro Schmid, Ben O'Connor, Jai Hindley, Max Schachmann, Alberto Bettiol, Mikkel Honoré, Ethan Hayter, Luke Plapp, Magnus Sheffield, Alessandro Covi, Jay Vine, Marc Hirschi, Hugo Hofstetter, Michael Matthews, Simon Yates, Chris Froome, Caleb Ewan and Simon Clarke.

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The climb to Challambra Crescent is 1.3 kilometers at 7.9%. Not too hard, but enough to split the peloton, drop several riders, and on the final lap attack hard, specially as towards the summit it goes up to 15%. It's a very explosive section that ends with 9 kilometers to go where the riders will be in small groups, but have around two kilometers to reorganize.

Following that there will be a small uphill pitch where some attacks are, again, possible, of around 300 meters at 10%. However from there on the race changes quite significantly and the final 6 kilometers will be much more prone to chasing.

Along big avenues, the riders will have only two corners until they reach the finishing straight. It is as simple of a finale as it could be where a solo rider stands little chances, and having a large group can be very beneficial. This is where the balance between the early attackers and the sprinters will be battled.

Grey skies, light temperatures and a breeze from the south. It should neither harm or benefit the attackers, the final circuit is very urban and with plenty of direction changes even within the climb itself, so the weather shouldn't affect the race.

Michael Matthews - Team Jayco AlUla have racing back in Australia and will be looking to win. This is an important day for the team and Matthews is perfectly suited to this type of racing. They have the option to both try to organize a chase or cover late attacks with Simon Yates who's shown great form recently.

INEOS - INEOS have Ethan Hayter who will be capable of sprinting to the win here, aswell as a possible late attack. He hasn't had the best legs Down Under however and so I expect an aggressive INEOS, with both Luke Plapp and Magnus Sheffield as dangerous riders in the case of an attack, with a solo move aswell being quite possible.

Caleb Ewan - Ewan is coming in racing with the Australian national team which won't be good for his chances, taking into consideration that there will be little support. However Ewan can count on other teams attempting to bring back the race for a sprint, and he's shown good climbing legs recently which will have him as a decent candidate for the win.

Several riders will be quite dangerous in the case of late attacks. Teams such as UAE with Jay Vine, Marc Hirschi and Alessandro Covi, and EF Education with Alberto Bettiol and Mikkel Honoré will be extremely dangerous and will most likely be the teams trying to cause the most chaos and offensives. Within that field riders such as Mauro Schmid, Ben O'Connor, Antonio Tiberi and Max Schachmann will also be difficult to control if they go on the attack.

However the race may also have a fast finish from a reduced group. Even from within the classics riders and puncheurs there are fast finishers such as Israel's Corbin Strong and Simon Clarke, or even Intermarché's Hugo Page and Sven Erik Bystrom. Hugo Hofstetter will also be a very dangerous rider and a great card for a Top10 result.

*** Matthews, Bettiol
** Hayter, Ewan, Covi, Strong
* S.Yates, Plapp, Vine, Hirschi, Schmid, Tiberi, Bustrom, Hofstetter

Pick: Alberto Bettiolm