Australia’s premier domestic team, Genesys Wealth Advisers, can no longer work under the radar at the MARS Cycling Australia Road National Championships.

Genesys captured the first elite men’s national title up for grabs with West Australian Anthony Giacoppo in central Ballarat on Thursday night.

Now Australia waits to see what it might produce next, especially when the heavyweights – like the much hyped Australian world team GreenEDGE – come out tomorrow for the elite men’s road race.

“There is a lot more pressure on us, we’re no longer considered underdogs,” Shaw said.

“GreenEDGE is strong, but there are a lot of teams that could be a big threat ... there are plenty of top riders out there in one of the most quality national fields ever.”

The entire Genesys squad, including newly crowned men’s criterium champion Anthony Giacoppo, took a comfortable ride about the Buninyong circuit yesterday morning then finished with a coffee by Lake Wendouree.

Shaw said the outing was a good chance for his teammates to become familiar with his home course but the rest day was also an important chance to relax, have a general catch-up and boost morale.

Most will finish the day with a massage to ensure they are race ready.

Younger riders will hit Buninyong for the men’s under-23 road race this morning while the elite riders, like Shaw, will rest to freshen their legs for what has been billed as the Battle of Buninyong tomorrow.

Genesys team manager Andrew Christie-Johnston said the criterium title was fantastic but the road race was a completely different game.

“The criterium title for us was something we saw as achievable because we do so many crits,” Christie-Johnson said.

“We’re definitely an outside chance (in the road race) – GreenEDGE has a squad of 16, we’ve got a squad of six so we’ll be lucky to do anything major, it makes us harder.”