TEENAGER Indiana Michel will defend his Fred Icke cycling road race title at Creswick on Saturday.
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A surprise winner last year, the Shepparton 19-year-old faces a much tougher assignment.
Michel started from 29 minutes last year, but will be part of the five-minute bunch this time.
Ballarat-Sebastopol Cycling Club has attracted 114 entries for the 56th edition of the handicap, which features three laps of a 44.3km circuit - starting and finishing in Creswick and taking in Newlyn, Blampied, Smeaton and Allendale.
Ballarat-Sebastopol's Jay Bourke has been given the privilege of wearing the number one saddlecloth in a 14-strong scratch bunch.
This group takes some solid form to Creswick, but this event is always tough for the scratchmarkers.
Lucas Hamilton (Ararat), Angus Lyons (Ballarat-Sebastopol), Alexander Morgan (Blackburn), Jack Bell (Camperdown), Mitchell Dedman (Coburg) and Mark Fagg (Geelong) are all coming off the latest National Road Series event, the Tour of Toowoomba.
Morgan is another past Fred Icke winner.
Morgan, who is now 20, took the line honours in 2012 when a junior world champion, and then a year later was part of the Australian men's team pursuit team to take a wild title.
He is coming off another strong track season, having won this year's national individual pursuit championship.
Todd Satchell from Stawell-Great Western will take some of the most consistent form into the race.
He won the Wal Smith road race at Casterton, and has also had an eighth in the South West Tour and close up 15th in the Victorian country road championship at Harcourt.
The Fred Icke handicap is scheduled to start at 11am.
Provisional handicaps:
SCRATCH
1 Jay BOURKE (Ballarat-Sebastopol)
2 Lucas HAMILTON (Ararat)
3 Angus LYONS (Ballarat-Sebastopol)
4 Alexander MORGAN (Blackburn)
Liam WHITE (Ballarat-Sebastopol)
6 Jack BELL (Camperdown)
7 Darryn BENN (Blackburn)
8 Mitchell DEDMAN (Coburg)
9 Mark FAGG (Geelong)
10 Michael GALLAGHER (Carnegie-Caulfield)
11 Allan SATCHELL (Stawell-G Western)
12 Todd SATCHELL (Stawell-G Western)
13 Kyle THOMPSON (Carnegie-Caulfield)
14 Nicholas WHITE (Ballarat-Sebastopol)
5 MINUTES
15 Taylor ANSTEE (Bendigo)
16 Stephen FAIRLESS (Shepparton)
17 Dylan HATELY (Camperdown)
18 Joel HAWKINS (Mornington)
19 Stefan IMBERGER (Carnegie-Caulfield)
20 Christopher JOUSTRA (Latrobe City)
21 Ashleigh KEY (Ballarat-Sebastopol)
22 William KEY (Ballarat-Sebastopol)
23 Michael KRAUSE (Southern Masters)
24 Jeremy McINNES (Ballarat-Sebastopol)
25 Indiana MICHEL (Shepparton)
26 Dan PICKERING (St Kilda)
27 Riley TERRENS (Brunswick)
28 Dylan THOMPSON (Carnegie-Caulfield)
29 Andrew BONELLO (Footscray)
30 Fraser SHORT (Italo Australian)
12 MINUTES
31 David RANDALL (Carnegie-Caulfield)
32 Tyson WARNETT (St Kilda)
33 Chris HELLMAN (St Kilda)
34 Christopher KENNETT (Hamilton)
35 Matthew LEDGAR (St Kilda)
36 Dean JOHNSTONE (Carnegie-Caulfield)
37 Jamie FOULKES (Ballarat-Sebastopol)
38 Christopher HARNEY (St Kilda)
39 Haydn KAVANAGH (Warrnambool)
40 Dylan LINDSEY (Portland)
41 Tony MIRABELLA (Ballarat-Sebastopol)
42 Adam PAYKEL-SAMUEL (Carnegie-Caulfield)
43 Rob SIMPSON (Southern Masters)
44 Brendan SPINKS ((Italo Australian)
45 Andrew SULLIVAN (Ballarat-Sebastopol)
46 Samual TOFT (Mornington)
47 Mark KOMARNYCKI (St Kilda)
48 James MONAHAN (St Kilda)
49 Paul SCOULLER (St Kilda)
50 Giovanni CIPRIANO (Carnegie-Caulfield)
51 Michael HAY (Carnegie-Caulfield)
52 Evan HULL (Carnegie-Caulfield)
53 Jason KRUGER (Carnegie-Caulfield)
54 Trent SHANNON (Carnegie-Caulfield)
18 MINUTES
55 Tim CANNY (Ballarat-Sebastopol)
56 Anthony CORP (Melbourne Cycling League)
57 Andrew MCKELLAR (Footscray)
58 Mark FERGUSON (Footscray)
59 Craig HANNAH (Geelong)
60 Tony ROSS (Geelong)
61 Michael SKERRITT (MA Cycling)
62 Lincoln STOLZ (Geelong)
63 Colin AITKEN (Latrobe City)
64 Patrick BRETT (Warragul
65 Dale CLUNE (Italo Australian)
66 Caiden HULL (Carnegie-Caulfield)
67 Robert MANN (Mt Gambier)
68 Nicholas McENIRY (St Kilda)
69 Shane NANKERVIS (Ballarat-Sebastopol)
70 David OGILVIE (Ballarat-Sebastopol)
71 Matthew OPPERMAN (Mt Gambier)
72 Samuel PALANCA (Ballarat-Sebastopol)
73 David SAGNOL Port Fairy
74 Tim STIRLING Castlemaine
75 Justin VINCENT Warrnambool
76 Simon WARD (Ballarat-Sebastopol)
77 Andrew WHELAN (Carnegie-Caulfield)
25 MINUTES
78 Lindsay BURGOYNE (Ballarat-Sebastopol)
79 Tony MICHEL (Shepparton)
80 Darryl PATZEL Mt Gambier
81 Geoffrey ROBERTSON (Footscray)
82 Richard McCORKELL (Brunswick)
83 Thomas McDONOUGH (Coburg)
84 Brooke ANDERSON (St Kilda)
85 Amy BRADLEY (St Kilda)
86 Iain CLARK (Brunswick)
87 Matthew McKENZIE (Southern Masters)
88 Brett CREASEY (Portland)
89 Matthew DENHAM (Horsham)
90 Sam EDWARDS (St Kilda)
91 Peter GREIG (Warrnambool)
92 Rob MCGREGOR (Italo Australian)
93 Jeremy RYAN Warrnambool
94 Alister STUART (Carnegie-Caulfield)
95 Peter WEMYSS (Stawell-G Western)
96 Brian WICKENTON (Camperdown)
97 David O'BRIEN (Tolland)
98 Paul RANDELL (Italo Australian)
99 Darryl ANDERSON (Warragul)
32 MINUTES
100 Stephanie IVES (Carnegie-Caulfield)
101 Justine BARROW (Coburg)
102 Todd BAXTER (Camperdown)
103 Melissa BURGOYNE (Geelong)
104 Andrew GANNON (Brunswick)
105 Steven KENNEDY (Ballarat-Sebastopol)
106 Alexandra LOCKIE (Carnegie-Caulfield)
107 Purdie LONG (St Kilda)
108 John MARCAN (Italo Australian)
109 Karla McKINNON (St Kilda)
110 Jeffrey McLEAN (Port Fairy)
111 Robert MERKEL (Sunbury)
112 Nadine O'CONNOR (Geelong)
113 David MANN (Albury-Wodonga)
114 David WOOD (Hawthorn)