Defending champion Martin Elminger will be one of five past champions contesting the 10th edition of the Tour Down Under, which begins in the South Australian beachside town of Glenelg on Sunday, January 20.

Stuart O'Grady (1999, 2001), Mikel Astarloza (2003), Luis León Sánchez (2005) and Simon Gerrans (2006) make up the rest of the past winners back for another crack at the title. However, they may well face their biggest challenge yet.

The race marks the debut of the UCI ProTour calendar outside Europe, meaning 20 of the world's best teams are obligated to ride the seven-stage event (though only six count towards the overall classification). Last year, just seven ProTour squads were in attendance out of a total 14 teams. The change will therefore not only increase the depth of field and standard of racing but the size, boosting rider numbers 20 percent to a 133-strong start list.

One could say the awarding of ProTour status to the Tour Down Under represents a concession of sorts by the Union Cycliste Internationale.

To the bane of the Grand Tour organizers, the past three seasons saw the UCI attempt to include the Grand Tours and a slew of the world's best one-day races into the ProTour calendar. But after incessant polemics that did nothing for the sport's repute - already on a knife's edge - the end result has seen a split that's looking all the more permanent with these races struck off the ProTour and to date, remaining entities unto their own.

Doubtless, the history of century-old events like the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix will allow them to survive with equal if not more vigor. And so, in the end, it appears the ProTour may finally achieve its initial purpose of bringing cycling to the world with events like the Tour Down Under, elevating events that can be elevated, instead of toying with tradition.

Although opening with a 50 kilometer criterium in Glenelg some 10km southwest of Adelaide, somewhat curiously, the race for overall honors does not begin for another two days.

On January 22, the peloton embark on a 129km journey northeast from Mawson Lakes to Angaston, a rolling, deceptively difficult parcours that in the previous two years has turned the tour on its head. The race for GC was over for all bar four on an identical stage in 2006; last year, only 10 made the decisive split by the time the stage finished in Tanunda.

Wednesday's second leg is another bumpy one. And if the aforementioned break hasn't already gone a similar window of opportunity presents itself, two sprints and a mountain prime featuring on the 148km route to the Germanic sounding and equally Germanic looking town of Hahndorf.

Victor Harbor, the southernmost point of this year's race, is the finish town for Stage 3 and a familiar one at that. After a day-long breakaway last year, 2003 Tour de France green jersey champion Baden Cooke chose not to use his sprint and stormed into the largest city on the Fleurieu Peninsula with a late solo move.

Stage 4, a 134km journey from Mannum in the east to Strathalbyn in the south doesn't look too dangerous on paper. Teams with riders high on GC will be hoping for a non-threatening break to go early in the peace, while those with sprinters in their line-ups will aim to keep the peloton en masse with a view to a bunch sprint.

But how the cookie crumbles won't be known till the end of play Saturday, the circuitous 147km Willunga parcours more often than not deciding the overall winner of the Tour Down Under. Crunch time is Old Willunga Hill: a 3km climb averaging 7.5 percent with its KOM strategically placed at the 127.4km mark; leaving a fast, mostly downhill run to the finish.

For the sixth and final stage, the tour ends in the South Australian capital of Adelaide, its historical resting (and a few hours later, partying) place. It will be a different parcours to that of years past, involving 16 laps of a 5.5km pancake-flat circuit with enough time bonuses on offer to make every second count, as the race so often boils down to. Regardless, the final dash on Rundle Road will be the last chance for sprinters to save face before the year's first ProTour event draws to a close.

Last year experienced some highly atypical conditions with two consecutive days of rain storms. However, with the mercury forecast to rise into triple digits Fahrenheit by the week’s end, in terms of weather at least, this edition appears to be a return to the old.

And speaking of old, the term ‘anti-doping,’ despite its use to the point of overuse, has once again become the buzzword in season 2008.

Routine blood profiling of all ProTour riders, biological passports, ACE testing, the ADAMS whereabouts system and some 8,000 in-competition and 7,000 out-of-competition tests are all measures designed to make and keep cycling as clean as possible – a sport that last season, was on the brink of suicide.