Jayco-AlUla have recently headed to Europe without the men's green and gold national champion's jersey and the Santos Tour Down Under ochre winner's jersey. But this year there is a real sense that things are different, with a stronger team, more confidence and loftier ambitions.
Luke Plapp won both the road race and time trial titles, fellow new signing Caleb Ewan won the criterium title and the Australian WorldTour team has a super strong line-up for the Tour Down Under.
Simon Yates, Plapp and Chris Harper make a formidable trio to chase overall victory at the Tour Down Under. Then there is Ewan for the early sprint stages. If he recovers from the impact of the recent Adelaide heat, Jayco-AlUla have riders to target victory every day and every terrain.
Even before the winning run at the Australian Road National Championships, the team made their intentions in January unequivocally clear, setting the bar high for themselves.
“Having Plapp and Ewan join us will be a huge boost and with Yates returning after he enjoyed a stage win and second place finish overall… we are coming in with high ambitions to win,” said Jayco-AlUla sport director Mat Hayman in the team announcement that came out mid December.
“Hopefully 2024 will be a memorable one.”
The Australian Road National Championships certainly was, with Ewan’s national criterium title victory, a clean sweep of the time trial led by Plapp before he went on to take the road title for a third year running and again stand on the podium with teammates either side.
It was an impressive run but can it continue as the WorldTour racing begins?
The 2023 Tour Down Under winner Jay Vine won’t be on the line for UAE Team Emirates but with Alessandro Covi and Finn Fisher-Black they’ve certainly got some powerful options on the climbs.
Then of course there is Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step) who is coming back to the race where he first pulled on an Omega Pharma-QuickStep jersey in 2014.
Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) is also another rider who has early career memories at the race, with the Australian having delivered top 20 finishes in 2014 and 2015, as well as a youth classification win before he headed to the WorldTour.
He hasn’t been back to the race since and so is ambitious.
“It’s a race that basically helped me get a professional contract so it’s really nice to be back,” Haig told Cyclingnews.
“I’d really like to have a good GC result, maybe a top five. I’m quite realistic that it’s really early in the season and you have some guys that specifically target this and the GreenEdge team, it’s obviously a very important race for them.”
That doesn’t necessarily mean Jayco-AlUla always win it, with the Australian squad having a 50/50 record in the last ten editions. Tight margins often decide the final Tour Down Under winner so there is plenty of room for surprises.
The six-day WorldTour stage race from Tuesday 16 January to Sunday January 21 starts with four stages that are most likely options for the sprinters and breakaways.
The first stage does three laps of a course that starts and finishes in Tanunda and they include the climb of Menglers Hill, though it is a downhill run to the line.
Then it is onto stage 2 with the Fox Creek climb, twice, and a finish in Lobethal. It resembles a stage of the 2021 Santos Festival of Cycling, which Luke Plapp won while he was racing for the Australian national team.
“I think stage two will be hard. I think that probably won't be a sprint but the rest are definitely three good sprint days," Plapp told Cyclingnews in the lead in to the Australian summer racing.
"Then the weekend will be super hard, which I think is really exciting. It sort of builds as you go."
Stage 3 to Campbelltown and stage 4 to Port Elliot are the last chances for the sprinters with Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious), Sam Welsford (Bora-Hansgrohe), Elia Viviani (Ineos Grenadiers) and Jayco-AlUla's Ewan among the riders to watch.
Ewan sat out Friday's pre-race criterium, after a hot training session on Thursday, but is expected to be on the start line Tuesday. He will surely be the sprinter to beat as he tries to return to his best and win again.
After the opening four stages, the weekend will all be about the climbers and GC contenders.
Stage 5 finishes with two ascents of the iconic Willunga Hill and is the opening salvo in the weekend's GC battle.
Then it is onto Mount Lofty for the stage 6 finale, with three ascents of the climb as the final battle for the ochre leader's jersey unfolds.
Whoever wins atop Mount Lofty is likely to take overall victory. Jayco-AlUla are hoping it is again their turn.
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