2012 Santos Tour Down Under will be held in Adelaide and regional South Australia from 15-22 January 2012.

26 Australians are amongst 133 of the world’s best cyclists who have descended on South Australia for the 2012 Santos Tour Down Under.

The fourteenth edition of the Tour will commence on Sunday evening with the traditional Down Under Classic, an hour-long criterium in the Adelaide CBD. The six-stage stage race will begin on Tuesday with the 149km stage from Prospect to Clare.

Eighteen WorldTour teams will be on show including Australia's first professional cycling outfit, GreenEDGE, which will make its WorldTour debut.

The GreenEDGE team line up includes three past Santos Tour Down Under winners in defending champion Cameron Meyer, two-time winner Stuart O’Grady and recently crowned Australian road champion Simon Gerrans, who claimed the overall honours in 2006.

They will be joined in the green and gold by overall contender Matthew Goss, veteran Robbie McEwen who holds the record of 12 Santos Tour Down Under stage wins, plus impressive youngster Leigh Howard. On Friday, Luke Durbridge was named as the replacement for Jack Bobridge, who withdrew following a fall during Tuesday's time trial at the 2012 Mars Cycling Australia Road National Championships in Learmonth.

The UniSA-Australia team features some of the young guns of Australian road cycling including dual 2012 under 23 Australian champion Rohan Dennis who returns to the team along with Steele Van Hoff, Jay McCarthy, Lachlan Norris and Tom Palmer. Bernard Sulzberger and Will Clarke were the final two additions to the team following their strong performances in the road nationals last weekend.

Great Britain's Sky-Procycling will once again have an Aussie flavour with three home riders in 2002 champion Michael Rogers, Matthew Hayman, and 2010 stage winner Christopher Sutton.

Joining Michael Matthews, 2010 under 23 world champion and 2011 stage winner, and Graeme Brown in the Rabobank team will be Mark Renshaw who will make his debut in the famous orange and blue colours of the Dutch team.

A number of other Australians will also make their 2012 WorldTour debut for their new teams including Adam Hansen who will ride alongside two-time champion Andrei Greipel in Belgium's Lotto-Belisol outfit.

2011 National Road Series champion Nathan Haas and 2009 Tour de France stage winner and Heinrich Haussler will suit up for Garmin - Barracuda.

2012 Australian road race runner up Matthew Lloyd will look to continue his strong return to the pro circuit in his new Lampre-ISD team, while Jonathan Cantwell and Luke Roberts will line up for Team Saxo Bank.