Simon Gerrans expects he will know early whether Richie Porte is a threat in the men's elite race at the Australian road cycling championships.
Gerrans has made no secret of his ambitions for Sunday afternoon's 183.6km race at Buninyong, near Ballarat.
After a horrific 2015, Gerrans wants to hit this season running with big results at the nationals and Adelaide's Tour Down Under.
He will be the No.1 option for the powerful Orica-GreenEDGE team in the two events.
And when Gerrans targets a race, he usually delivers.
Porte is a much tougher read, given he intentionally is having a slower start to the season with his new team BMC ahead of the Tour de France.
He finished second behind teammate Rohan Dennis two days ago in the nationals time trial.
Porte has finished third twice in the men's elite road race, including two years ago in an epic duel with Gerrans, who won, and Cadel Evans.
But he has played down his chances for Sunday.
"It's pretty obvious these days when guys are in their top shape and when they're not," Gerrans said of Porte.
"We'll see that pretty quickly on Sunday.
"Even a Richie who's not 100 per cent, he's still a serious contender.
"When he is at 100 per cent, good luck beating him.
"Even if he says he's not where he was 12 months ago, you still can't write him off."
While Porte and Dennis are outnumbered by teams such as Orica-GreenEDGE, Gerrans said their talent made them major threats.
"These guys are Grand Tour contenders - you can't look past them at a national title," Gerrans said.
"It will be interesting to see how they play out their race."
Gerrans missed last year's nationals because of the broken collarbone he suffered in a pre-Christmas mountain biking crash.
It was the start of a string of crashes that cruelled his year.
The 35-year-old is determined to show last year was a hiccup.
"Like I said quite a long way out, I was going to put quite a big emphasis on the early season," he said.
Teammate Caleb Ewan also said after winning Wednesday's criterium championship that he would also love to win the road race.
Gerrans said Ewan would be a worthy winner.
"We have some great options and, as much as you guys (media) say I will be the leader of the team, I will be the leader in a certain situation," Gerrans said.
"Our strength is we have plenty of cards to play.
"The objective for the team is to have someone win the race - obviously, I'd love it to be me but, as long as we tick that box, I will be happy."
Having won the Australian champion's jersey twice, Gerrans would love to win it again.
"Also for myself, you look back ... when I've started off the season going well, it's tended to follow on to a good season," he said.
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