TDU lineup

Rubén Fernández, 5th overall a year ago, and stage winner Juanjo Lobato, are just two of the assets to be deployed in the multitalented Movistar Team that will ride the 18th Tour Down Under (Tuesday 19 - Sunday 24 January) and the traditional People's Choice Classic (Sunday 17)

Rubén Fernández, 5th overall a year ago, and stage winner Juanjo Lobato, are just two of the assets to be deployed in the multitalented Movistar Team that will ride the 18th Tour Down Under (Tuesday 19 – Sunday 24 January) and the traditional People's Choice Classic (Sunday 17).

With just over two weeks to go before the start of the 2016 season, the 37th consecutive campaign by Eusebio Unzué's set-up in the top flight of world cycling, the 7-man team has been named. It will also include Australia's own Rory Sutherland, and Movistar Team debutant Nelson Oliveira.

The 7 are Rory Sutherland (AUS), Jasha Sütterlin (GER), José Joaquín Rojas, Juanjo Lobato, Jesús Herrada, Rubén Fernández (ESP) and Nelson Oliveira (POR) – making his first appearance for the team in blue. They will be directed by DS José Luis Arrieta.

Australia's premier stage race follows its customary format, with stages that are consistently short (just 151 km for the longest, on Saturday 23) and nervous. The Corkscrew Road climb, on the way to  Campbelltown, on Day Three (Thursday 21), and the double ascent of Willunga Hill, 24 hours before the conclusion in Adelaide, will once again be the cruxes of a race that is otherwise crammed with opportunitites for the sprinters. 

Movistar Team was the Best Team of the 2015 edition, supporting Rubén Fernández, fifth overall and third at Willunga, and Gorka Izagirre, eighth overall, not to mention Juanjo Lobato, who took the stage at Stirling.