THE legs are heavy, the wind brutal but the backdrop a stunner.
I'm labouring on my bike over the hills behind the iconic Bells Beach a few weeks out from only the second staging of the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.
"Some say they invented wind down here," said a beachgoer at Torquay where I started my ride to sample a small portion of the race route.
"You just don't want to get the infamous 360-degree headwind."
On the roads behind Victoria's Bells Beach - about 60km into the race which starts and ends in Geelong - is where the action will heat up in the one-day men's and women's professional races on January 30-31.
It's also where one of the world's top sprinters, Mark Cavendish, will be hoping to stay in touch with the peloton.
Cavendish's inclusion for the men's race was a huge coup for organisers, who are aiming to build on last year's inaugural event where almost 100,000 people lined the route.
The region deserves something to celebrate after New Year bushfires - albeit further down the Great Ocean Road in and around Wye River - burned through more than 2,500 hectares of land and destroyed 116 houses.
The first race last year marked an emotional last professional race for the retiring Evans, Australia's 2011 Tour de France winner who now divides his time between Barwon Heads, which is on the race route, and Switzerland.
He still clocks up plenty of kilometres on the popular cycling loops around the Bellarine Peninsula and Great Ocean Road.
"I saw him riding with his son in Ocean Grove recently," said Maria, who I sat next to on the communal tables for brunch at Annie's Provedore in Barwon Heads.
"Yeah, I spotted him a few weeks ago on the waterfront in Geelong," added Maria's friend Paula.
Evans will line up in the People's Ride, a race where the public can pull on the lycra and challenge themselves over 111km or 65km on much of the same roads the day before the male pros and the same day as the female professionals.
The proud Victorian still holds plenty of sway in the peloton, with Evans helping to persuade Cavendish to commit to his first race in Australia since 2011.
Like Evans, Cavendish is a former road race world champion who is the third highest Tour de France stage winner with 26 and this month's race will also be the Brit's debut with Team Dimension Data.
In fact, Evans' hometown of Barwon Heads will be where Cavendish will be aiming to show his explosive power and hurtle down Hitchcock Avenue to collect the first sprint points on offer.
The fiesty Cavendish will then hope to get some help through the tricky hills of the surf coast from Cameron Meyer, his Australian teammate who finished a gutsy second behind Jack Bobridge at the national road race championships near Ballarat last weekend.
On a gruelling 183.6km course in 30C-plus heat, there were just 15 finishers out of the 130 starters.
And that's the beauty of the international cycling calendar, when the sport's cosmopolitan elite can be tested in brutally dry Victorian conditions at the peak of summer on raw country roads and then head to the cool early spring weather in Europe to race on cobblestones.
Like the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, Paris-Roubaix and Tour of Flanders have proven to provide brilliant backdrops for television audiences, the Australian races that wind along spectacular coastlines and then through dry kangaroo-dotted bushland have enjoyed solid TV ratings overseas.
Victoria is on show.
In another huge boost to the state's cycling fans, two-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome will start his season in early February at the Herald Sun Tour - Victoria's long-running stage race.
Among the few finishers at the Australian titles in Buninyong near Ballarat was Simon Gerrans, Orica-GreenEDGE's leader, who was sixth and will be hardened by that hit-out and looms as one of Cavendish's main threats.
Another is Australian Rohan Dennis, who rides with Evans' former BMC Racing team and who became the first yellow jersey wearer of last year's Tour de France when he won the individual time trial.
The women's race is shaping up as an intriguing battle between the reigning Australian road race champion Amanda Spratt, the 2015 national champion Peta Mullens and defending Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race champion Rachel Neylan.
RACE ROUTE
Geelong - Barwon Heads - Torquay - Bells Beach - Moriac - Ceres - Geelong
Men's race: 174km
Women's race: 113km
IF YOU GO:
GETTING THERE: Jetstar flies direct from Sydney, Adelaide, Gold Coast and Hobart to Avalon, which is south of Melbourne and a 25-minute drive to Geelong where the race starts; alternatively Geelong is a one-hour drive from Melbourne Tullamarine.
STAYING THERE: The Mercure Hotel in Geelong is the official hotel for the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.
* The writer travelled as a guest of Tourism Victoria.
AAP