A new season means a new sprint showdown, and the Tour Down Under will see the first sprint showdown between past and present Deceuninck-QuickStep sprinters Elia Viviani and Sam Bennett.

Viviani won 18 races for Deceuninck-QuickStep in 2018 and 11 in 2019, including his first stage in the Tour de France. He wanted to ride the Belgian team's lead-out train to more wins in 2020, but Cofidis made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

Quick Step coach Patrick Lefebvre knew he could replace Viviani with Bennett in the latest edition of the sprint unit. Bennett became Lefevere's preferred choice after being passed over by Beulah Hansgrohe for the Grand Tour.

Caleb Yuan (Lotto Soudal), Andre Greipel (Israel Startup Nation), and Yasper Filipsen (UAE Team Emirates) will be big threats in the four sprint finishes expected in this year's Tour Down Under, but but the battle between Viviani and Bennett will be the most intriguing.

Can Bennett fill Viviani's hole in the Detunink Quickstep? Or will young sprinters such as Italian neo-pro Alberto Dainese (Team Sunweb), Britain's Gabriel Caray (Movistar), Giacomo Nizzolo (NTT Pro Cycling), and Christopher Halvorsen (EF Pro Cycling) thunder them Will they strike down?

We will see at the Schwalbe Classic warm-up criterium on Sunday and especially at the Tour Down Under next week.

"Detunink-Quickstep is always a really good sprint team. I don't want to be the first sprinter that didn't win at Detunink-Quickstep," Bennett admitted in Adelaide on Saturday as the pressure mounts.

"The pressure is always there, but it doesn't compare to the pressure I put on myself, so I'll be fine," he added.

"When you join a new team, you want to start with good morale. Everyone trusts me and if I can get some wins early on, it will make it easier to get into that flow."

Viviani watched from afar as Bennett told the media about the upcoming sprint showdown, and while there is no ill will between the two, there is little room for friendship between sprinters who must fight shoulder-to-shoulder at 70 km/h.

"I'm looking forward to the race," said Bennett.

"It's not a battle between me and Deceuninck-QuickStep. The important thing is to cross the finish line first," Viviani said, denying any direct rivalry.

Viviani and Bennett last competed at the 2019 Prudential RideLondon-Sully Classic, where Viviani also defeated the Irishman a week earlier when he won the European road race title.

After two seasons with Deceuninck-QuickStep, the Italian arguably has the biggest sprint profile in the peloton, but Cofidis is still a work in progress when it comes to his lead-out train. However, Viviani countered that he could ride the Detunink-QuickStep train and win the Tour Down Under.

"No, I'm on the wheels of a new team. I have faith in them.

"I moved to Cofidis because I really believe in this new project. My new lead-out is Simone Consonni and Fabio Sabatini has worked with me for two years. I know the winning mentality of Detunink Quickstep and how they work.

Viviani acknowledged that Bennett and Dečuninck-Quickstep, led by Danish road race champion Michal Morkov, could dominate the sprint and give Bennett an important advantage.

"Sam won a lot of races last year and now he is in Detunink-Quickstep. I know that team very well, so I think he will be a great competitor," Viviani said, naming Bennett as his leading rival. [Caleb Yuan is also a threat. He had a really impressive season last year. There are some big names in Sprint. I think Greipel is back to his best and the young sprinters are working hard. For the past few years, we have been warned to watch out for the younger guys. Not many people know this, but Alberto Dainese, a 21-year-old Italian on Team Sunweb, is really fast. He's one of the youngest sprinters on the World Tour, I think, but one of the strongest, along with Halvorsen of EF Pro Cycling and Philipsen of UAE Team Emirates, who won the sprint last year. I think every sprint will be a really hard fight, not just between the big guys." [Following in the footsteps of Mark Cavendish, Marcel Kittel, Fernando Gaviria, and Viviani to avoid a first Dečuninck-Quickstep sprint failure.

"It will be hard to win a stage here, but I'm looking forward to it. But I'm looking forward to it. Personally, I'm happy to win a stage and I know how greedy I'll be if I do."

Viviani is also confident of early success.

"My form is close to last year, so now we just have to see the level and ability of my rivals. I've had a good winter, so I'm optimistic that we'll have another successful season."