Mitchell Lovelock-Fay hopes Avanti's NZ move will open doors Mitchell Lovelock-Fay. New Zealand gave Canberra cyclist Mitchell Lovelock-Fay his first win of the year and he's hoping Avanti Racing's move across the ditch will help open the door for a professional contract. Last weekend the 22-year-old became just the second Australian to win the Tour of Southland since the New Zealand race began 58 years ago. It was Lovelock-Fay's first victory for 2014 after a year spent mostly riding for teammate Joe Cooper. His Andrew Christie-Johnston-led team will base itself in New Zealand next year. He was hoping it might open a few doors to races in Asia, such as the Tour of Langkawi, and possibly the US as well. Good performances abroad could help get him noticed by a professional team. "I'm going to have to learn a little bit more Kiwi language next year because they use a lot of different words over there," Lovelock-Fay joked. But for the team, it means we should be able to get more Asian racing and a lot of the bigger Asian tours that we don't usually get invited to ... but being the only continental New Zealand team next year, we'll get invited to a lot more races in Asia and possibly America. If you can go there and prove to the pro teams that you've got ability and get results in those races ... I think that's definitely going to increase your chances of getting signed up and it'll put you on the radar. Lovelock-Fay has set himself some tough goals for next year with the aim of picking up a pro contract in 12 months. It starts with an aim of finishing top 10 in the road race at the nationals in Ballarat in January, with the hope of getting selected in Team UniSA-Australia for the Tour Down Under in South Australia later that month. He also wants to follow in the footsteps of former Avanti rider and fellow Canberran Nathan Haas and win the National Road Series. Haas enjoyed a breakout 2011 - dominating the NRS and also winning the Herald Sun Tour and the Japan Cup - which led to him signing with pro team Garmin-Sharp. Lovelock-Fay took a week off after winning in New Zealand, but will begin his pre-season in Canberra on Monday. He will ride in the Launceston Cycling Festival in early December before going to Nowra for a training camp as he builds towards nationals in the new year. "I know I have the ability to possibly finish top 10 at the nationals at the elite level if I can conserve my energy throughout the race," he said. If I keep training hard I could do well and get selected in that Tour Down Under team for UniSA, that's my short-term goal. My long-term goal is to win the overall in the NRS, like my teammate Joe Cooper did this year. I've set myself some pretty tough goals there, but I know if I put the hard work in I can achieve them.