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Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race 2017

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Hello and welcome to live coverage of the men's Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. The 174km race has been elevated to WorldTour status from 2017 and is the first one-day event on the top tier of the calendar. For Cyclingnews race preview, click here. And for the start list, click here.

Down on the waterfront, the riders are signing on under blue skies and sunshine 

BMC's Richie Porte, who won Tour Down Under last week, spoke with the host broadcasters at sign on.

Two riders to have signed on are Aqua Blue Sports' Connor Dunne and Orica-Scott's Esteban Chaves. Possibly the tallest and shortest in the peloton for today's race!

With 2015 champion Gianni Meersman retiring due to heart issues and last year's winner, Team Sky's Peter Kennaugh, starting his season in Europe this year, a new winner is guaranteed later today 

In 2017, Velon has partnered with the race and will be bringing data on particular rider power, cadence, heart rate and speed to the TV viewer

Team Sky's Chris Froome has signed on. The three-time Tour de France champion is being seen as a favourite for the win today. A proven champion in stage races, Froome is yet to assert his dominance in one-day races but will that change today? We'll soon find out!

With the race being elevated to WorldTour status, there are no Continental teams in the peloton. Along with the WorldTour and Pro-Continental squads, a national Australian team is also lining out for the 174km event.

The riders are on the start line about to rock'n'roll!

We'll hear the national anthem and then it's time to fire the starting pistol and commence the 174km road race

Cadel Evans is going to lead the peloton out in the neutral zone before the race gets underway proper. He is wearing black BMC kit with the familiar rainbow bands around the sleeve to signify his 2009 Worlds win

Race director Scott Sunderland is about to wave the red flag and start the race proper

The riders are moving forward to ensure they are in prime position for an early breakaway attempt

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Alex Porter (Australian National Team), Angel Vicioso (Katusha), and Gazprom-RusVelo's Kirill Sveshnikov have joined Dunne and the quartet look like being given room to enjoy some TV time

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It's a busy weekend of racing to close out the month of January. Over in Argentina, Max Richeze won a shortened stage due to the weather with Bauke Mollema holding onto the race lead. You can read the race report by clicking here

Meanwhile, in Luxembourg at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships, Sanne Cant won her first elite rainbow jersey by beating out Marianne Vos. You can read the race report by clicking here 

There was also the women's race at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race yesterday with Annemiek van Vleuten continuing Orica-Scott's dominance over the Australian summer. For the report of a thrilling race, click here

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Of the four riders in the breakaway, Alex Porter is the youngest of the quartet at 20 years of age and the third youngest in the race. He won the U23 Australian national criterium title earlier in the month. The track rider is aiming to do more road racing this season and proven his capabilities by making it into this early move.

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While Alexander Porter is the third youngest rider in the race, Ángel Vicioso is the second oldest in the bunch at 39.

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The 'velon' riders in the race who will be proving all the data for the broadcast are: Richie Porte, Chris Froome, Simon Gerrans, Gianluca Brambilla, Robert Gesink, Alex Howes, Lucas Hamilton, Luke Durbridge, Danny van Poppel, THomas De Gent, Koen De Kort, Michael Storer, Phil Bauhaus and Danilo Wyss

In today's race, it's not the overall race winner who will be invited onto the podium with prizes for a sprint classification, KOM classification, and best young rider.

The first of two intermediate sprint points comes after 23.9km of racing in Cadel Evans' hometown of Barwon Heads. The second comes after 47.2km in the coastal town of Torquay.

There are three climbs where riders can pick up KOM points. The first of those is at Bells Beach, 56.6km into the race, with the second and third coming on the finishing circuit at Challambra Crescent after 121.2km and 141.4km.

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Compared to the first two editions of the race when the breakaway was never given more than five minutes, this breakaway is being given a massive lead of 9:53 minutes and continually growing

The gap is growing and growing by the metre with the breakaway now at over 10:30 minutes. BMC's Australian champion Miles Scotson has come to the front of the peloton who look to have decided they need to keep this breakaway in check

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Connor Dunne took an inside line to make an early attack but Alex Porter chases down Irishman just before the line to take the three points

Confirmation of that first intermediate sprint: 1st, Alex Porter (Australian National Team) 3 points, 2nd: Connor Dunne (Aqua Blue Sports) 2 points , 3rd: Ángel Vicioso (Katusha) 1 point

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Former FDJ rider Kenny Elissonde is racing today with Team Sky after a late-call up to the Tour Down Under. The Frenchman had been training with Chris Froome in Queensland and was called upon to replace the ill Owain Doull in South Australia. He will also line out for Sky at next week's Herald Sun Tour in support of Froome. To read about his move to Sky and early-season ambitions, read out feature on the climber by clicking here

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126 riders signed on for the race today and thus far, we are yet to see a DNF as they will come later in the day when the racing really heats up.

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Approaching the sprint, the breakaway has 7 minutes over the chasing peloton

No contest at the sprint as Alex Porter opens his up sprint, checks and sees no-one is chasing and takes it easy over the line to secure the jersey so long as he finishes the race.

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It was Ángel Vicioso taking the honours at the KOM, making his move just under 100m before the summit to take the points

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In case you were wondering what the parcours looks like for today's race, here is the 2017 race map

At the Tour Down Under last week, Cyclingnews editor in chief Daniel Benson sat down with Bahrain-Merida's Jani Brajkovic with the interview becoming a special edition of our regular podcast. You can listen to the podcast and subscribe by clicking here

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A lot is being made of the race outcome today and the possibility of a 'Tour de France' podium with Chris Froome, Richie Porte, and Esteban Chaves all in contention for the win in Australia and later in the year in France. We'll wait and see if that play out today but Orica-Scott are yet to confirm who will lead its team in July with the Yates brothers also in contention along with Chaves.

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Simon Gerrans is one rider who is in contention for the victory. Should he win the race today he would complete a 'clean sweep' of the major Australian races in January having previously won the national titles, Tour Down Under and Jayco Herald Sun Tour. If he wins, he would also be the first Australian to win the race after a Belgian in 2015 (Meersman) and Manx man in 2016 (Kennaugh). 

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The Dimension Data team, who are backing Nathan Haas for the victory, have come forward to help out with the pace making as the peloton approaches the feed zone

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Team Sunweb's Australian Neo-pro Chris Hamilton had a few words to say this morning about how he sees the race playing out.

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For those of you unsure of how many WorldTour points are on offer for the winner, it's 300. Second place will receive 250, and 215 for the third place finisher. BMC's Richie Porte currently leads the individual standings on 660 points.

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The likes of Lotto Soudal, UnitedHealthcare and Cannondale-Drapac are moving forward at the head of the peloton in anticipation of the arrival into Geelong.

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Velon have created a fly over video of the circuits in Geelong. Watch the video below to see what awaits the riders!

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The high pace from Bora is seeing the gap to the breakaway drop to just 40 seconds with further selection expected up Challambra Crescent

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Danny van Poppel is making a move from the peloton for Sky as the big teams start to show their hands with AG2R joining in

Francois Bidard has joined van Poppel in the chase for the breakaway

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Quick-Step Floors have decided to join in at the head of the race now

A long single file peloton is chasing down this two-man breakaway but it's still a tactical affair

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Bayly's teammate Porter is still leading the race with Dunne but their advantage is just in the seconds for now with everyone in sight of each other

Bayly's move has died off and the peloton has decided to let this move of Porter and Dunne exist for just a few more kilometres. They now have 30 odd seconds

Aqua Blue Sport's Calvin Watson decides to follow in the footsteps of Bayly and join his teammate at the head of the race but he's hanging in no man's land for the moment

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This is Watson's first race, and Aqua Blue Sports, with the Victorian heading to the Herald Sun Tour next week. A race he won in 2013 that secured a two-year deal with Trek. He moved to Chain Reaction last year before joining the Irish Pro-Continental squad for its maiden season in the pro peloton. He is certainly showing his form and motivation after a long off season

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Inside 30km to go and it appears all 126 starters are still in the race but are spread across several kilometres

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Sebastián Henao loses a front wheel and comes down in a crash

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With a big group all together, the climbers need to make this final lap hard to shell the likes of a Gerrans, Haas and McCarthy

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 Jan Bakelants takes tumble around the roundabout and crashes to cause a split

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Nathan Haas packs a dangerous sprint and will like his chances from here but the peloton is coming back together now

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It's Dries Devenyns not Bauer from Quick-Step Floors sorry

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Photo finish!

Nikias Arndt looks like he has won it by mere millimetres with Simon Gerrans taking second and Meyer third

What a finish! Cam Meyer went long but just couldn't hold on with Nikias Arndt just getting there in time for the win and Simon Gerrans slipping in for second

"No one really had any teammates left so it was a really dicey sprint with everyone ducking for wheels and trying to get out of the wind. Nikias went from a long way out and did the whole sprint in the seat and in the end, I had nothing left and just couldn't get past him," Gerrans said in a flash TV interview.

For the race report, results and photos from today, click here 

Having taken until May last year for its first win in the WorldTour, Team Sunweb have enjoyed an early confidence boosting win at the top tier of the sport to close out its Australian racing campaign.

For Simon Gerrans and Orica-Scott, they will regroup and head to the Herald Sun Tour next week aiming for victory . It is the final race of a busy start to the season with Orica-Scott then heading to South Africa for a training camp.

Cam Meyer will also be heading to the Herald Sun Tour, and like Gerrans is a former winner of the stage race, where he will line out for the national team. After this block of racing, he is likely to head back to the track and target the Worlds but over January he has again proven his value and worth at the top tier of the sport on the road.

That's it for now from us, so thank you for joining us and keep clicking back for all the reaction from the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and reports across a busy weekend of racing!

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