Cameron Wolff was leading the peloton just a few kilometers into Sunday's Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, riding hard into a crosswind.

A former rower, Wolff was a professional cyclist for the Liquigas-Cannondale team for six years, but retired after the 2014 season to take up triathlon.

Coached by Tim Kerrison of Team Ineos, Wolff was a familiar face with the team, having been invited to training camps on numerous occasions.

His first race was on Sunday, just two days after the announcement of his contract with Ineos. Cadel Evans' Great Ocean Road Race was in rough conditions, and Wolff was instrumental in splitting the Ineos peloton early in the race.

"As expected, it was super hard. As a team we didn't have any sprinters, so the plan was to make the race as hard as possible. [In my first race back, I pulled first, which would have been nice if I had an easy 50-60 km. About 5 km into the race and then it was as far as I could go."

After the early flurry, the race was back on track, but as the race intensified before the finish circuit, Ineos was again prominent. Pavel Sivakov took second place, sprinted past Dries Devenyns of Dečuninck-Quickstep, and Dylan van Baarle was in fifth, four seconds behind the group of four.

Wolff fell on the finish circuit and did not finish the race.

"With a team like this, it's easy to get motivated to do whatever you can," said Wolff. Pavel and Dylan were especially strong." Pavel and Dylan in particular were super strong. If you fight hard all day long, they have a chance. It was great."

"It was a great fight,"

"It was a great fight.

On his return to his old stomping grounds, Wolff said he blended in immediately.

"I felt pretty comfortable in the peloton. Maybe everyone knew it was me and gave me a little more space. A lot of the players said, "Welcome back."

"It was a great start. It was tough, but I'm glad we did it as fast as we could. Now we know what to expect and we can improve for next time."