Mark Cavendish will make his Team Dimension Data debut in Australia, racing at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race on Sunday January 31.
Cavendish switches to the African team – granted a WorldTour licence for the first time – this winter, and will start his season down under.
However, while his new team-mates will be in action at the Tour Down Under, the first WorldTour race of the season, Cavendish will kick-start his own campaign a week later.
That frees the Manxman to compete on the track for Great Britain at the final round of the UCI Track World Cup in Hong Kong on Saturday January 16 and Sunday January 17 instead, should he be selected as expected.
Cavendish is relishing his Dimension Data bow, however, commenting: “I am looking forward to starting the 2016 season in Victoria and racing for the first time with Team Dimension Data at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.
“I’ve heard great things about the challenging course and I’m especially excited to visit Geelong again – last time I was there was for the 2010 UCI Road World Championships.”
Fellow former world champion Evans, who retired from professional racing at the inaugural running of his eponymous race last year, is also delighted Cavendish will be in action in Australia.
“Mark Cavendish [is] the best sprinter and most victorious professional rider of our era. I am delighted he chose to start this important Olympic year here,” he said.
“It will be interesting to see ‘Cav’ and his new team, Dimension Data, in action here in Geelong, and follow their progress through to what will most likely be a sprinters World Championships in 2016.”
Other WorldTour teams set to compete in the race include BMC Racing, led by last year’s Tour Down Under winner Rohan Dennis, and Orica-GreenEDGE – who have confirmed Aussie favourite Simon Gerrans will be on board.
Team Sky, Katusha, Trek Factory Racing, IAM Cycling, Lotto-Soudal and Team LottoNL-Jumbo will also join Dimension Data on the startline, while Britain’s ONE Pro Cycling are one of five ProContinental teams selected.
And Cavendish is not the only high-profile Brit starting his season in Australia, with Chris Froome having already confirmed he will be down under to start his build-up to the Tour de France at the Herald Sun Tour in February.
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