Chris Froome suffered on Thursday so he could win big in July.
Before the three-time Tour de France champion opened his season with the 116.6km Race Melbourne, he rode from Geelong to Melbourne in the morning.
He was attending the Australian Open tennis on Thursday night, so Froome did not have to worry about the ride back.
It is the sort of punishing January schedule that Froome knows will pay big dividends in July, when he tries to win the Tour for the third-straight year.
"It was a big day - 130km to get here and then the race ... it was a good day," he said.
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Froome also delighted fans when he and two other riders went on the attack near the finish.
"It blew the cobwebs away," the Team Sky leader said of Race Melbourne.
"It had been a pretty rapid race all day - 48 (km/hr) average - and when it came together with a couple of laps to go, I thought I'd have a dig.
"I definitely wasn't going to be in the sprint there.
"I was quite happy with that, it was nice to have a little bit of speed in the legs."
Froome will now compete in Sunday's Cadel Evans Great Ocean Rd race.
Unlike Thursday's pancake-flat circuit at Albert Park, the Cadel Evans course has a few steep climbs near the finish and is more suitable for Froome.
His Australian friend Richie Porte, expected to be one of Froome's main Tour de France rivals this year, will also race on Sunday.
