Talented 19-year-old rider Caleb Ewan to showcase his skills at Herald Sun Tour Caleb Ewan wins the under-23 men's road race at the national championships. HE'S been wearing bandages for most of the year so far - but exciting work-in-progress Caleb Ewan is about to put his impressive talents on show in the middle of Melbourne. Ewan, 19, will be confirmed today as the spearhead of the Under 23 Jayco national team in the Herald Sun Tour, which begins with a short but spectacular twilight prologue in Southbank on February 5. Ewan has had an impressive but painful start to the year which will see him make the transition from junior ranks to a full-time pro with Orica-GreenEDGE towards the end of the European season. The youngest rider in the peloton, he completed his first Tour Down Under in Adelaide on Sunday despite sustaining leg and arm abrasions in a heavy crash on the third day of racing. He also hurt himself in a fall on a training ride late last year, which saw him sporting bandages when he raced in the season-opening Bay Classic Criteriums in Geelong a month ago. That didn't stop him winning the final stage of that event - following his overall win the previous year - or going on to win both the criterium and the road race at the under 23 national championships in Ballarat a week later. Caleb Ewan crosses the line after crashing before the finish. He enjoyed another big moment when he finished on the podium with Germany's Marcel Kittel and Andre Greipel, two of the world's best finishers, at the People's Choice Classic criterium, which preceded the TDU. A specialist sprinter whose pint-sized frame has seen him compared to retired champion Robbie McEwen, one of Australia's greatest road racers, Ewan will be a strong candidate to win the Southbank hit-out and one or more of the four stages that follow. Riding alongside him in the national team will be West Australian Bradley Linfield, a UniSA teammate in Adelaide, junior road world championship representatives Robert Power of WA and Sam Spokes of NSW, national time trial medallist Harry Carpenter of SA and Tasmania's Alex Clements. "This squad is likely to form the nucleus of the Jayco-AIS World Tour Academy team that will race in Europe this season," team director James Victor said yesterday. We look forward to getting the group back together for the first time since the world titles in Florence last year. Caleb has had a busy start to the year but we expect him and Robert Power to challenge for stage wins in bunch finishes. The HST will also feature an elite national team headed by reigning track world champion and Olympic silver medallist Glenn O'Shea and fellow Victorian Patrick Shaw. The KordaMentha Team Australia outfit will also include two other Victorians, Matthew Clark and Thomas Hamilton and NSW's Chris Jory, all of whom have shown promise in the Subaru National Road Series. "The team is made up of mostly young guys who are stepping up but we have some more experienced members who we expect to be up high in the rankings," director Dave Sanders said. The Victorians should be able to make the most of their home ground advantage. We will target the prologue with O'Shea, who is the one kilometre time trial national champion, while Shaw is the most experienced rider on the Australian circuit and comes from Ballarat, so knows the first two stages well. That's gold. Experienced international riders Matthew Lloyd, another Victorian, and Queenslander Allan Davis are reserves for KordaMentha, as is WA's Michael Fitzgerald.