Matt White names his favourites Simon Gerrans raises his arms in triumph as he finishes ahead of Cadel Evans and Richie Porte. Newly crowned Australian road champion Simon Gerrans and the two riders he outsprinted to win that race, Cadel Evans and Richie Porte, are clearly the favourites for next week's Tour Down Under in South Australia. But, according to Matt White, Gerrans' sports director on the Australian Orica-GreenEDGE team, they are certainly not the only contenders for overall victory in the six-stage race from next Tuesday to Sunday. White sees at least three other big threats - Dutchman Robert Gesink of the Belkin team, who ended last year with a win in the Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec World Tour race, and Spanish Movistar teammates Jose Rojas and Javier Moreno, the latter of whom finished second overall last year. He won't rule out an unknown dark horse either. On Monday, White was adamant that the 183.6-kilometre national championship at Buninyong in Victoria had confirmed the favouritism of Gerrans, Evans and Porte, who made up the decisive four-man break with Gerrans' teammate Cameron Meyer, who will not be racing the Tour Down Under. "Cadel doesn't ride unless he is going well and Richie has proven over the last couple of years that when he races he races at a very high level," White said. I really think those three are favourites for the Tour Down Under. The only ones I would put in as outsiders are Gesink and there will always be someone from Movistar, whether it is Rojas or Moreno. Also, there is always a surprise package from Europe, someone who has had a good off-season, put in a lot of hard work and is in the mix there. A key factor at the Tour Down Under will be that Orica-GreenEDGE will not have the numbers advantage they had at Buninyong, where they started with a 12-rider line-up. As a World Tour race, the Tour Down Under is limited to seven-rider teams. Evans did not have any teammates on Sunday whereas in South Australia he will have American Brent Bookwalter, Ben Hermans of Belgium, Frenchman Amael Moinard, German Rick Zabel and the Swiss duo of Steve Morabito and Danilo Wyss. And Porte, who had only Nathan Earle in support at the national championship, will have Irishman Philip Deignan, Austrian Bernhard Eisel, Australian Chris Sutton and the British trio of Geraint Thomas, Luke Rowe and Ian Stannard. Gerrans, who is seeking to become the first three-time Tour Down Under winner, will have Australians Simon Clark, Matt Goss, Matt Hayman, Michael Mathews and Luke Durbridge and Daryl Impey of South Africa. "It is going to be a different scenario there," White said.