Simon Gerrans, Cadel Evans and Richie Porte will go head-to-head in the Tour Down Under

ADELAIDE is set to host a mouth-watering week-long showdown between Australia's three greatest road cyclists after Simon Gerrans beat Cadel Evans and Richie Porte yesterday.

Winner Simon Gerrans nearly falls of the podium with Cadel Evans and Richie Porte. Picture: Michael Klein.

ADELAIDE is set to host a mouth-watering week-long showdown between Australia's three greatest road cyclists after Simon Gerrans beat Cadel Evans and Richie Porte to be crowned national champion for the second time yesterday.

Australia's best one-day rider unleashed his trademark powerful late kick to beat the nation's two best Grand Tour riders in what was hailed the greatest ever national championships in Buninyong.

The 33-year-old's Orica-GreenEDGE teammate Cameron Meyer finished fourth while Jack Bobridge made a statement that after a lean year with Belkin Pro Cycling, he is back by attacking the leaders after 180km of racing and finishing fifth.

Gerrans, Evans and Porte will now take their red-hot form to Adelaide to go head-to-head in the Santos Tour Down Under starting on Sunday.

"Today was a bit of a test for me, I haven't raced a road race since early September," said Gerrans, who won his first national crown in 2012.

"I knew I'd done all the hard work in training but didn't know where my form was at and I'm obviously really pleased.

"It's a huge honour to be crowned Australian champion for the next 12 months. I guess it shows the depth we have in Australian cycling when I've got Richie Porte and Cadel Evans at my side on the podium.

"I'm not going to rank this win and compare it to any of my others, every single win is special in its own way.

"To win in front of an Australian crowd like this, for an Australian WorldTour team is very, very special.

"But really when it comes down to it I can't thank my Orica-GreenEDGE teammates enough."

Team Sky's Porte fought just as hard as Evans to claim third place and showed he is at the level he needs to be to challenge for the TDU title.

Gerrans celebrates his win over Evans and Porte. Picture: Michael Klein.

"I had a bit longer off-season than I thought but I've worked hard the last few weeks," Porte said.

"I'm very happy to be on the podium and full credit to Simon, I think when he attacked on the last climb he showed he was head-and-shoulders the strongest rider in the race.

"It's a nice way to start 2014. There's another week to the Tour Down Under so hopefully I'll be absolutely flying by then."

The 18-lap race featured constant early attacks by Drapac and the hot pace brought some riders unstuck.

A world-class breakaway of 17 riders had formed by the third lap, which remarkably included Allan Iacuone who was still racing aggressively 20 years after he won the national title.

Orica-GreenEDGE had Simon Clarke, Luke Durbridge and Mitch Docker in the escape group and were only slightly outnumbered by Drapac which had Adam Phelan, Will Clarke, Wes Sulzberger and Bernie Sulzberger.

They got out to a lead of almost four minutes when with seven laps remaining, Budget Forklifts helped Avanti bring them back and the breakaway began to dwindle.

Sensing the pack was closing in on them, Simon Clarke kicked up the climb on laps 16 and 17 but he was closely marked by Will Clarke, Steele Von Hoff and Adam Hansen.

The bunch was together as they got the bell for the final lap and Cameron Meyer and Jack Bobridge flexed their muscles up the back straight before Evans, Porte and Gerrans took over to fight it out for the win.

Gerrans always posed the biggest threat of the three riders coming into the finish and he timed his jump to perfection to make it three national titles on the trot for Orica-GreenEDGE.

"It's a nice way to start 2014. There's another week to the Tour Down Under so hopefully I'll be absolutely flying by then."