Chris Froome's massive racing year is underway, the reigning Tour de France champion finishing 26th in the Herald Sun Tour prologue.
As Australian cyclist Will Clarke won the short 2.1km time trial at Melbourne's Southbank for the second-straight year on Wednesday evening, Froome was pleased with his first competitive hitout of the season.
The British star has lofty goals in 2016, aiming to become the first rider in the post-Lance Armstrong era to successfully defend his Tour de France title.
Froome, who also won the 2013 Tour, then will target gold medals in the road race and road time trial at the Rio Olympics.
It is only the second time a reigning Tour de France champion has raced in Australia.
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"It's definitely a bit of a lung opener, that ride," the Team Sky leader said.
"It was a really short, intense little sprint basically.
"It was definitely a good ride by Will there to repeat ... impressive."
Light rain made conditions tricky early in the prologue but by the time Froome started it was dry.
He was the second-last rider to start, ahead of rising Australian star Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEDGE).
Clarke (Drapac) clocked two minutes 34.27 seconds, beating his winning time from last year of 2:35.53.
Ewan was second on Wednesday with 2:35.15 - also repeating his prologue result from last year.
Froome, who clocked 2:42.10 to finish eight seconds behind Clarke, was pleased to finish the prologue without incident.
Probably Froome's best chance of a strong result in the five-day Tour will be Sunday's final stage at Arthurs Seat, which features a summit finish.
"I'm happy with that - the main objective today was just to stay upright," he said.
"The racing is still going to be decided over these next few days.
"Undoubtedly, once we get to Arthurs Seat at the end, that's going to be the big day."
Froome was impressed with the size and atmosphere of the crowd that lined the prologue route.
"It's very different (to the Tour de France) in the sense obviously that it's very short, but at the same time the crowds have been massive," he said.
"It's the same kind of thing you'd expect on the Tour, just big crowds.
"I'm happy to see that."
Clarke, who rides for Melbourne team Drapac, had to wait half an hour before his prologue win was confirmed.
The win means he wears the race leader's jersey for stage one on Thursday.
"It was a nervous wait for me," he said.
"I was lucky, it dried up a bit for my run.
"I'm just a little bit stronger than last year, I think - that allowed me to go a little bit quicker."
Stage one of the Tour is a 126.1km road race that starts and finishes at Healesville east of Melbourne.
