Orica-GreenEDGE poised to secure signing of Damien Howson - one of nation's best young prospects

AUSTRALIAN cycling team Orica-GreenEDGE is poised to secure one of the nation's best young prospects by signing Damien Howson.

Damien Howson

AUSTRALIAN cycling team Orica-GreenEDGE is poised to secure one of the nation's best young prospects by signing Damien Howson for next season.

The Adelaide 20-year-old will become the first rider from Australia's Jayco-AIS WorldTour Academy which was formed in March, to graduate to a WorldTour contract.

News Limited understands Howson will be signed as a stagiaire - a trial rider - to contest the Tour of Utah in the US next month and a full-time deal for next year is imminent.

It will cap a remarkable rise for Howson who only switched to cycling from basketball in 2006 as part of a South Australian Sports Institute talent identification program.

He has since gone on to become a triple Oceania under-23 time trial champion - and this year won the road race/time trial double at the Oceania titles in Canberra.

In January he rode the Santos Tour Down Under for wildcard team UniSA-Australia and spent Stage 4 from Modbury to Tanunda in a two-man breakaway with BMC world champion Philippe Gilbert.

"He's good because he had all the high cadence, it means that you're strong when you can ride like this," Gilbert said of Howson at the end of the stage.

Howson then went to Europe with the Jayco-AIS Academy and has starred by winning Italian race Trofeo Alcide Degasperi and finished second in the prologue and on Stage 5 of the Olympia's Tour in The Netherlands.

"We're certainly in discussions with him, we are really interested and expect that something will be finalised shortly," Orica-GreenEDGE general manager Shayne Bannan said.

"He's a good talent and a really nice guy so we think he will fit in with what we're about.

"We're getting pretty close."

Howson is expected to represent Orica-GreenEDGE for the first time at the Tour of Utah from August 5-11.

Each WorldTour team is allowed to sign three stagiaires between August and September to enable teams to have a closer look at potential riders.

Speaking to News Limited from France on the first rest day of the Tour, Bannan said he was delighted with the team's opening week in which it won two stages and held the yellow jersey for four days.

"It's been a great first week," Bannan said.

"We'd been to Corsica (where the Tour started) twice to do reconnaissance so we were pretty serious about that stage (Stage 3 won by Simon Gerrans).

"And we knew that if we could do that, we had the chance to do something special in the team time trial."