Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race 2020

Italian road race champion Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-QuickStep) went won better than the previous year to win the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in 2019. He beat the home favourite – Lotto Soul's Caleb Ewan – in Geelong, Australia, and had no doubt about who to thank after managing to get over four climbs of the tough Challambra Crescent on the finishing circuit.

"I have to say thanks to the best team in the world, with Michael Mørkøv doing a fantastic lead-out for me," Viviani said after his victory.

"With his help, I'm always confident of taking the win. Michael's been away from home for a month now," he said, referring to the team's stint in Australia, "but this is the pay-off."

The WorldTour race based on a circuit around Geelong, close to Melbourne, takes in stunningly scenery along the famous Great Ocean Road. It always enjoys a strong line-up of teams and riders, with many coming directly from the Tour Down Under in Adelaide, with almost all of them happy to prolong their warm-weather racing and training before it's time to return to the cold, wet spring races in Europe.

On the back of his three stage wins at the Tour de France, and settled in at Lotto Soudal after a full first season, expect Ewan to be firing on all cylinders and looking for revenge in 2020, while – as long as he again makes the trip to defend his title – it will be Viviani who'll be learning the ropes at new team Cofidis next season.