With one day remaining to the start of this year's Tour de Korea, five riders to watch were presented to local and international media for an insight to their objectives for the race, the season and for the years ahead. The following quotes have been taken directly from that media conference.

Caleb EWAN (ORICA-GreenEDGE)
You’ve been described as “Australia’s Cycling Boy Wonder” by almost every major Australian news outlet. Does that put a lot of pressure on you?
"I guess there’s a bit more pressure on me than a normal rider but all the guys I have to race against (who are) trying to win (means) there’s always a lot of pressure anyway, so I’m in the same boat as most of the guys. But I guess for any of these guys, most of the pressure comes from within anyway so it’s pretty easy to deal with the pressure from the public or the press."

How would you summarise your season so far and what major objectives that lie ahead?
"I’m pretty happy with how it started so far. The team gave me a goal of five wins for the year and I’ve already got that now so I guess there’s a little less pressure from the team now for me to win races. Obviously, I still want to win races and, you know, there’s a few good races especially this one (Tour de Korea) coming up in the future. I hope I can get a few more wins and maybe at the end of the year I can do a Grand Tour (Vuelta a España) as well, but it depends on how the year’s going up until then."

Your mother is Korean, and you were last in Korea aged 5. Tell us more about your Korean lineage and how it feels to be here racing?
"I’ve only been here once when I was a lot younger. It’s unfortunate I haven’t been back, it’s a really nice country. I’m quite close to the Korean side of my family because I lived right near them when I was younger and I spent a lot of time with them. Couldn’t pick up any of the language which was a bit unfortunate but, yeah, I love the food and it’s a really nice culture and everyone here is very polite so it’s a nice race to come to."

Although your team is backing you to win stages, there is a serious chance that you could contend GC, isn’t there?
"Yeah, I guess there are no massive mountains here so it depends on how I’m climbing as well. You don’t really need massive climbs to change the GC but there are really, really, strong guys here and I’m sure there’ll be guys that obviously aren’t sprinters (who) want to go for GC that will make it really hard. I haven’t really thought about GC a whole lot, I just want to come here and try to win a few stages and then if GC comes with that then that’s a really big bonus. I’m just going to focus on stage wins for now and see how we’re going towards the end of the tour."

Wouter Wippert (Drapac Pro Cycling)
You started the year with a stage win at Tour Down Under, posted a couple of stage wins at Tour de Taiwan and secured a couple of podium finishes at Tour of California. You have therefore achieved wins in stage races that observers might think have very different “styles”.  Is racing in Asia really any different from racing in US, Europe and Oceania, or is it overstated?
"Yeah, of course there’s a big difference. In Europe and the US there’s way more control by the bigger teams and in Asia it’s like almost a whole race attacking and breaks going up the road. In most stages it’s hard to control for the teams. There are only five or six riders here so it's harder for teams to control. I think that’s the biggest difference. It’s harder here to make a plan before the race and finish it off than it is in Europe or the US."

What’s your ideal scenario at this year’s Tour de Korea?
"I hope for eight bunch sprints (laughs), but that’s going to be hard I guess. There’s a good chance that one or two days a break will stay away for GC, but I hope there’s going to be as much as possible the chance to sprint for the win and we’re going to give it our best shot this week."

Joseph Cooper (Avanti Racing Team)
Your team director Andrew Christie-Johnston once said about you “there is no one in Australia or New Zealand any better - I’ve had no one better” and that WorldTour is just a matter of timing. Coming back from an injury last year, how do you see yourself progressing and what are your goals for this year?
"Last year, I broke my hip at this time so it’s been a year now. I haven’t lost anything since then and hopefully came back a bit stronger. My role here for this tour will be to help out the guys get to the bunch kicks - I don’t like to dabble in the bunch sprints - so I’ll look to make my exit with about 2km to go. I’m still hopeful that I can keep knocking on the door of getting a ProTour contract and that’s still my number one goal really."

Avanti as a team has churned out the likes of Richie Porte. Tell us more about the team culture and how has the team is able to grow talent over the years?
"The team definitely turns out a few of these top ProTour riders like Richie Porte. Jack Haig, who raced (with Avanti) last year, knows he’ll be another one of those guys to step up with ORICA-GreenEDGE next year. The culture in the team is a good one. Everyone gels together and drives everyone forward to reach the same sort of goals. We generally have a lot of fun after the tours as well, so look out Seoul!"

Who is the designated leader of Avanti, what are your goals and the team goals?
"We’re going to have a couple of team leaders for this race and we’ll roll the dice on different days with one being on the back of the other two - that’s Anthony Giacoppo, Neil van der Ploeg and Patrick Bevin. Those guys will be more protected. My personal goals – I probably would like to ride solo for 80km or something, so that’ll be fun. The team plans – we’ll try to go for a stage win and give these guys to my right (Caleb Ewan and Wouter Wippert) a run for their money."

Hossein Askari (Pishgaman Giant Team)
This year’s Tour de Korea is reasonably kind to sprinters and comparatively less challenging for pure climbers. Can you win this race overall?
"Of course, no, we cannot. My team are all climbers but we don’t have any sprinters. We will just keep to the bunch (because) I think it will be impossible to break away on this tour. This is my last year of cycling. After the (2016) Olympics, my cycling is finished."

Park Sungbaek (KSPO)
You are the only Korean to win this race at home in 2012 and the race should only get harder as it grows in status. Can you realistically win Tour de Korea overall again?
"I’ve been racing Tour de Korea for almost 10 years and I think the size of this race is getting bigger - I’m very glad. Although I won in 2012, I still want to win this year too."

After two stage wins in Tour of Thailand in April, how does it feel to race in your backyard amongst some of the best talents in the world?
"I’m glad I won at the time. I’ve trained a lot for this race and I’ve already looked around the stages so I think I have a home advantage. I will try my best for this race."