Caleb Yuan has not competed in the Australian Cycling Road Race Championships since 2019, but he will take on the Mount Bunyon Road in January to test his increasingly evident ability to handle short climbs and still win in a sprint finish.

Ewan is expected to be one of the key men in Australia's summer races. He will be part of the Australian national team at the Santos Tour Down Under and the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.

He has also been confirmed for the Australian Road Race Championships on January 8, with Ben O'Connor and Jay Vine already on the start list. Ewan will race with teammates Harry Sweeney and Jarrad Drizners.

Ewan won this course as an under-23 rider and finished second in the 2015 elite men's race, losing to Heinrich Haussler in a small group sprint.

He also finished fourth in the road race in 2018, but retired in 2019 and 2016. He has been a bit of a disappointment in the race, as Buninyon's repeated climbs often split the field and have a habit of leaving many riders out of contention by the final lap of what will be a 16-lap, 185.6-km race in 2023.

However, Ewan, who is focused on holding his own on the climbs, such as the Poggio climb in Milan-San Remo last year and his performance in the final stage of the Tour de France, will wear the green and gold striped jersey in his quest to become national champion.

And for Yuan in 2023, a tough year with his usual incredibly high standards, plus being overlooked for selection for the locally hosted road world championships, may have given him even more ambition. Winning the Japanese championship would be a good way for him to prove that he is qualified for the World Championships.

It would also be a clear page-turner

for 2022, when his team was relegated from the World Tour and, despite seven wins, failed to achieve major goals such as the Giro d'Italia and a stage in the Tour de France. It is unclear whether Ewan will compete in the national championship criterium on Friday, January 6, wearing the new Lotto Dostony kit. The New South Wales rider won the criterium title three years in a row from 2016 to 2018, but opted instead to miss the race in central Ballarat in 2019 in order to focus on road racing.

The Australian Road Championships is the second event in Australia's summer racing calendar, which kicks off on January 1-3 at the Citroen Bay Crites.

The Australian Championships will be held from January 6-10. It will be followed by the women's and men's Tour Down Under from 14-22, and the women's and men's Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race on the last weekend in January.