After an injury ravaged 2015, Simon Gerrans is keen to makeup for lost time in every race he can, starting with the Australian Road Race title on Sunday. The 35 year old says he would love a third title, but the most important thing is that someone from Orica-Greenedge gets the jersey after losing it in 2015.

"I am feeling good and I am looking forward to racing after what has been a pretty solid pre-season and like I said quite a long way out, I was going to put a big emphasis on the early season," he said. "I am looking forward to testing the condition now, obviously I've done a lot of training, not a lot of racing, a few club level criteriums. Sunday's going to be the first real test for me,” Gerrans told reporters.

He says the hunger to win the title doesn’t subside after taking the first one, it only grows as you realize how special it is.

"I think it probably gets stronger because once you've had a taste of how special it is to be Australian champion and have the honour of wearing the green and gold jersey for the next 12-months," he said. "Once you've done it once, the motivation is even higher to get it back again and I am one of the lucky few who've have the chance to do that. Also for myself, you look back at history, when I've started off the season going well it tends to follow on to a good season so that's been a bit of added motivation to get this season off to a good start."

He says the team hasn’t discussed specific tactics yet for race day, but the team does have lots to play, with Gerrans, Luke Durbrige and Caleb Ewan, who is flying just now.

"We haven't had our meeting yet to talk about how we are going to go about the tactics of the race, I think the strength we have, we don't have by any means the largest contingent on the start line but we have some great options in the team," said Gerrans of the team.