Richie Porte believes he is well on his way to a seventh straight win on Willunga Hill and a second overall title in the Tour Down Under, where he leads Trek-Segafredo along with world champion Mads Pedersen.

Porte, a native of Tasmania, has started the past six seasons in the Tour Down Under and has won the important climbing stages in each of them, but has only one outright win, in 2017. Porte finished fourth overall in 2014 and second overall the other years; in 2019, Darryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) is 13 seconds ahead of Porte.

Porte's victory at Willunga last year was his only win in a disappointing debut campaign with Trek-Segafredo. Either way, he feels in good shape to start the season, as he always does.

"I've been training on familiar roads in Tasmania and have been doing so for some time now.

"I think we'll arrive in good shape and we'll have a pretty strong team, so I'm looking forward to racing in Australia and starting the season there."

The 2020 Tour Down Under route may tip the balance back in Porte's favor.

For the past two years, Willunga Hill has been the only summit finish, with Daryl Impey taking the overall title with bonus seconds earned in a selective sprint. However, the 2020 route will offer two uphill finishes, and following the climb to Paracombe on stage 3, Willunga Hill will be the final act of the entire race for the second year in a row.

"Having the climb to Paracombe this year and Willunga as the final stage is a good thing for me.

"It's always good to start the season in Adelaide. Being from Australia, it's great motivation to race in front of people who usually stay up past midnight to watch European races. It's great to meet some of those fans"

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Along with Porte, world champion Mads Pedersen will make his 2020 debut. Pedersen will get his chance in the flat early stages.

Supporting Porte on the hilly stages later in the race will be newcomer Kenny Elizondo and youngsters Juan Pedro Lopez and Michel Ries, who will be making their professional debuts. Rounding out the team will be Kiel Leinen and road captain Coen de Corto.

"Our ambition and ultimate goal is to fight for the win with team leader and GC contender Richie Porte. This year there are two uphill finishes on stages 3 and 6, which are favorable for Ritchie. We will bring a strong and motivated team to support Richie, especially on the important stages," said Kim Andersen.

"Kenny has done well at TDU in the past and will play an important role. Neo pros Juan Pedro Lopez and Michelle Reese will also aim to provide good support in the hills. Mads will be free to run sprints in the first two stages, but after that she will be 100% committed to the team's goal of winning the overall."

In the women's Tour Down Under, Trek-Segafredo will be led by the American duo of Taylor Wilze and Ruth Winder, who finished 10th overall last year, with Lotta Hentala (formerly Lepisto) looking for a stage win in the sprint.

The four-stage race will start and finish with a chance for bunch sprints, but the late stage 3 climb and the uphill finish in Stirling on stage 4 will determine the overall. The women's Tour Down Under will be held January 16-19, and the men's January 21-26.

"The Tour Down Under is always an early race against the Australians. Together with Taylor and Roos, we have put together a good team to compete at the top of GC. Lotta will return to competition after an injury-plagued 2019 challenge and we will support her in the sprint," said Ina-Joko Teutenberg.

"The race will change a bit and tactics will play a bigger role as there will be no top mountain finish. The route also opens up the race to more contenders, and with those opportunities, it will be an aggressive race."

Joining the Trek-Segafredo team will be Anna Prikta, Trixie Wallach, and Abi Van Twisk: Mads Pedersen (Denmark), Richie Porte (Australia), Kenny Elissond (France), and Kiel Reynen (USA), Kane de Kort (Netherlands), Michel Ries (Luxembourg), Juan Pedro Lopez (Spain)

Women: Lotta Hentala (Finland), Anna Plikta (Poland), Abi Van Twisk (Great Britain), Ruth Winder (USA), Taylor Wiles (USA), Trixie Wallach (Germany)

The Tour Down Under will be broadcast on Seven in Australia, NBC Sports in North America and Eurosport in Europe.

If you live outside the broadcast area or are out of the country on vacation and the live stream is geographically restricted, you can get around this by accessing it via a "virtual private network" for your laptop, tablet, or mobile, or a VPN, simulating being in your home country. This can be done.

TechRadar has tested hundreds of VPNs and recommends the number one VPN available today as Express VPN With ExpressVPN (opens in new tab), you can use your Smart TV, Fire TV Stick, PC, Mac, iPhone, Android phones, iPads, tablets, and many other devices at once.

How to Follow the Tour Down Under 2020 - Live Stream Coverage and Results