After an extended break from the sport, Guy was picked up by team Search2retain at the suggestion of fellow Orange rider and now teammate Angus Tobin.

Guy and Tobin will both compete in the elite teams category, played out over four different stages across the southern Victorian seaboard from today.

Ritchie Boulevard plays hosts for today’s first stage before riders converge on Eastern Gardens, Portarlington and Williamstown in the respective second, third and fourth stages.

Riders have the chance to be crowned individually as the overall stage and sprint winner, or as part of the winning team based on a cumulative points system.

The first 10 riders past the post are awarded stage points, while the first three are awarded sprint points.

Each team’s first three finishers are also awarded points and in each event the rider or team with the highest cumulative total is crowned champion.

Guy said his, and Search2retain’s, preparation had been good.

“This is definitely my biggest race since I’ve come back,” Guy said.

“It’s the first time I’ve raced elite teams at Mitchelton, and coming off our latest camp in Thailand I’m feeling good.”

Half of the Search2retain team raced across Asia last month while the other half kept up preparation in Australia before coming together for a two-week training camp with the OCBC Singapore Continental Cycling Team in Thailand.

Tobin agreed with Guy’s sentiments, saying he expected his team to be more than ready.

“We really should come into it flying after racing in Asia, and the camp,” Tobin explained.

Tobin said Search2retain would look to diversify its strategy and would rely on starting each stage quickly.

“It should be quite an interesting race,” Tobin said.

“We’ve got three very good sprinters in our team so hopefully we can take a more diverse sort of approach into the race and look to set up a breakaway early and allow our sprinters to save their legs.”