Cadel Evans has his fingers crossed for a preview of this year's Tour de France podium when his race comes down to the wire.
Sunday's Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road race is the only event in the Australian season that will feature Chris Froome, Richie Porte and Esteban Chaves on the same start line.
Porte (Australia, BMC) is coming off a command performance at Adelaide's Tour Down Under, which he won for the first time, while Chaves (Colombia, Orica-Scott) was runner-up.
Froome (Great Britain, Sky) raced for the first time this year on Thursday at Race Melbourne.
Froome, the three-time Tour de France champion, is the man to beat again this July.
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Porte is aiming for the podium after finishing fifth last year, while there is speculation that Chaves could make his Tour debut after a series of breakout results last year.
The 174km men's race on Sunday culminates with three laps of a finishing circuit that includes the steep Chalambra climb.
"I'm hoping - I'm not going to bet my life on it - but I'm pretty sure we're going to have a pretty good chance of seeing what might be the podium of the Tour de France away, solo, over the top of Chalambra on the last lap," Evans told AAP.
"Richie and Chris are so keen, they really want to win.
"Chaves, I think, has some things to amend after the Tour Down Under and, after racing at the Tour, he's going to be primed, ready to go.
"So potentially, it could be a really, really super day and a super race."
In its third year, the Cadel Evans race has achieved WorldTour status for the first time.
The women's race on Saturday also had live TV coverage and was a fascinating tactical duel won by Dutch star Annamiek van Vleuten.
Several thousand cyclists, including Evans, also took part in the People's Ride on Saturday morning and the weekend has been blessed with ideal weather.
"We came into this week and I just thought 'everything is in place to have a really big weekend'," Evans said.
"Now we've had a fantastic women's race and I did the People's Ride ... everyone was so happy to be out there on their bikes."
