Cadel Evans accepts he's unlikely to win the new international cycling race that bears his name and passes through his Victorian hometown.
But the 2011 Tour de France champion will be a proud host when he contests the inaugural Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.
Inspired by Europe's prestigious Spring Classics, the event will be held over the January 31-February 1 weekend next year, with an elite women's race and public mass participation event for 3000 riders on the Saturday and elite men's race on Sunday.
Evans, the 2011 Tour de France champion, was in Geelong on Thursday to launch his event, which has been given a 1.1 (one-day, category one) rating by international governing body the UCI.
The Australian-owned Orica-GreenEDGE team and Evan's American-owned BMC Racing are already set to contest the men's race and it seems certain to attract other world tour teams, coming a few days after the Tour Down Under in South Australia from January 17-25.
The course starts in Geelong and travels through Barwon Heads, where Evans has his Australian base, then through Thirteenth Beach, Torquay, Bells Beach and Moriac before a dramatic finish on the Geelong waterfont.
While long on scenery, Evans admitted it didn't suit his riding strengths.
"No, it's my own race but I designed it with longevity of the race, sustainability of the race and interest of the race in mind rather than my own riding characteristics," he said.
Evans will turn 38 just 13 days after the race and there's no guarantee he'll still be riding professionally for much longer.
"My contracts are coming to an end. At this point I will be riding in my BMC colours (in the Great Ocean Road race) and beyond that, we'll see," Evans said.
The course follows much of the route for the 2010 world championships, which were held in Geelong, adding some history and pointing toward an open contest.
"You really don't know what's going to happen until the last few kilometres which of course makes it much more interesting, much more exciting, and more appealing to a broad range of riders," Evans said.
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