Richie Porte to target overall honours at Tour Down Under

THE Tour Down Under is set for the best racing in its history, with three Australian stars confirming they will target the title.

Champion Australian cyclist Richie Porte.

THE Tour Down Under is set for the best racing in its 16-year history next month, with three Australian cycling stars confirming they will target the overall title.

Richie Porte has joined Cadel Evans and Simon Gerrans in saying he wants to perform well in the January 19-26 race.

Luxembourg's Frank Schleck, returning from his doping suspension, and German crowd favourite Jens Voigt will also compete.

Porte has raced at the Tour Down Under before, but never in peak form.

This time it will be a key part of his preparation for the Giro d'Italia in May, when he wants to contend for his first Grand Tour title.

Porte is coming off an outstanding season, this year becoming the first Australian to win Paris-Nice and being the key lieutenant for Tour de France champion Chris Froome.

Sky will send a strong team to support Porte, with Great Britain's Geraint Thomas finishing third in the race this year.

"I want to go to Tour Down Under and perform. As an Aussie, it's the race to win," Porte said.

"I think if I'm in good form and we have a strong team there - if not me, then through Geraint Thomas - we also have a really good chance.

"It's great that there's interest from an Australian perspective with Cadel starting his season there - myself, Simon Gerrans and guys like that." Sky's Down Under line-up will also feature Australian sprinter Chris Sutton, Austrian veteran Bernie Eisel, Ireland's Philip Deignan and British riders Ian Stannard and Luke Rowe.

Gerrans is a two-time winner of the Tour Down Under, most recently last year.

He will lead Orica-GreenEDGE and has confirmed he is targeting the national road titles, the tour and the Herald Sun Tour through January and early February.

This July, Gerrans became only the sixth Australian to wear the yellow jersey as race leader in the Tour de France.

Evans and Porte have never won the Adelaide race.

But like Porte, Evans wants to go to Adelaide in strong form as part of his preparations for the Giro, where he finished third overall this year.

Evans, the first Australian to win the Tour de France two years ago, was a key player in probably the greatest day of racing in the Adelaide event's history.

Wearing the rainbow-striped jersey as the reigning world road champion, Evans was involved in a pulsating duel with his rivals on the key Willunga climb in the 2010 edition.