Campbell Flakemore, who won the under-23 time trial at the 2014 UCI Road World Championships, will debut in the elite men’s ranks with BMC Racing alongside one of his childhood heroes, Cadel Evans, at the 2015 Mars Cycling Australia Road National Championships.

It will be quite a start to the 22-year-old’s professional career with his first three races in BMC colours being the last three in the distinguished career of Australia’s greatest cyclist, Cadel Evans.

“It’s pretty cool,” said the Tasmanian. “I was actually there in 2011 when he won the Tour de France, so to have seen that and to be racing with him three to four years later is pretty special.”

But Flakemore’s first big objective will be in the time trial, where he’ll get the chance to measure himself against Australia’s best on a new and challenging course in Buninyong.

“You could not get a stronger field. It’s (Rohan) Dennis, (Luke) Durbridge, (Michael) Hepburn, (Jack) Bobrigde, (Richie) Porte, (Damien) Howson, (Michael) Rogers and (Cameron) Meyer. It’s crazy the amount of good time trialers Australia’s got,” he said.  

“My goal is top-five. But with these names it’s going to be pretty hard. I think I can definitely be in the mix though.

“You don’t know what sort of shape everyone is going to be in, so I can just prepare as best as I can and see where I’m at on the day.”

The new time trial course includes lots of undulations, barely a flat stretch of road and a wind farm. But this does not seem to affect Flakemore.

 “I’ve heard it’s quite hilly which is a bit different to the last couple of years,” he said.

“I guess that could suit me a little bit better than a pancake flat trial. But it’s going to be hot and there’s going to be a lot of different factors as well. It all adds up to be a tricky TT course.

“The strongest man will win as they always do with the time trail.”

The 2014 UCI Road World Championships showed that Flakemore is abundantly aware of how important the finer details can be to getting the desired result.

Flakemore won the U23 time trial title by a mere 0.48 of a second, ahead of Ireland’s Ryan Mullen.

“I knew it was going to be close,” he said of the win.

“With the climb at 5km to go, I knew that if I could make a bit of time up there I could possibly get it back, so I just went full gas, and it was just enough.

“It was a crazy day and I was just happy to win it in the end.”

As for the year ahead with BMC he says, “I’m super excited about it.”