DAMIEN Turner is ready to take a leap of faith and break his cycling retirement today.Turner will be back on the road for the Australian Masters Road Championships in Ballarat, which run until Tuesday.He starts with the individual road time trial - an event Turner has twice finished top 10 in Australian open titles.Today's time trials, out and back along Ballarat-Burrumbeet Road, launch a massive five days of blockbuster cycling across Ballarat.Action includes the World Cycling Classic, drawing global stars to Buninyong on Sunday in a prelude to the UCI Road World Cycling Championships in Geelong.Turner said a troublesome year, since January's national championships, led him into retirement but three weeks ago, the cycling bug bit and he started training for the masters."I'm going in a little underdone but it's a good opportunity to compete at one of the highest levels again," Turner said."I'm certainly looking forward to added motivation back in the grit and determination needed for cycling."Turner hoped a full program - including the masters' criterium and road race - would be a launching pad for a return to the Australian open championships in Buninyong this summer.He has proven one of Ballarat's top contenders, mixing it with the world's best, at Buninyong with a bronze medal, three top 10 finishes and back-to-back king of the mountain titles in the past three years.Turner said he would have been riding in the world classic, too, this weekend had his Team 2XU have won a wild card entry.Ballarat-Sebastopol Cycling Club will feature nine riders, including Turner, across four of the 17 masters' categories in today's time trials, starting at the Arch of Victory.Turner has looked at the men to beat in his field and said his time trial rivals were all a bit of an unknown to him."Really anything could happen on the day and those little one per centers can make the difference in the time trial," Turner said."The course is basically flat. The real deciding factor will be the wind conditions, which will certainly make hard work."A calf injury hampered Turner's preparations but he passed a late fitness test on Tuesday and confirmed himself as a starter. Turner is counting the weeks to the January nationals and he looked forward to measuring his form level in masters competition."I always tell everybody you never know how you'll go until you get out there," Turner said."Otherwise, you'll always sit on the sidelines wondering."BALLARAT RIDERS TODAYAndrew Weightman (men's masters 4), 12.54pm startCharles Stebbing (men's masters 4), 12.59pmGrant Gilbert (men's masters 3), 1.10pmMatthew Smith (men's masters 3), 1.13pmStuart Sanders (men's masters 3), 1.15pmShane Cody (men's masters 2), 1.38pmScott Townsend (men's masters 2), 1.48pmJason Haire (men's masters 2), 1.50pmDamien Turner (men's masters 1), 2.18pm