Its 2011.  Its January.  And its time to go road racing.

We’re just days away from the kicking off the Pro Road racing season, starting with the Santos Tour Down Under.  We’ve got to get our fill too, because the UCI calendar has a gap between the TdU and the start of racing in Europe at Paris-Nice.

Early indications are that the Australian race will be picked up by Versus, giving all us Yankees a chance to get an early start on our love/hate relationship with the network.  Presumably we will get, at best, a 30 minute nightly recap of the days events, and at worst a 60 minute summary of the whole week on Sunday.

As usual, www.cyclingfans.com is keeping us apprised of broadcasts – both on television and the web.

The 17 7-man teams are known.  The “retired” Armstrong will be there, and Saxo Bank will be there sans Contador.  BMC will also be there, with their shiny new ProTour license.  The gutted Astana team brings Allan Davis, the only rider to have competed in all 13 Tour Down Under races, and Team Sky comes with two former TdU winners (Simon Gerrans and Michael Rogers.)

While the big stage race names are missing from the rosters, this race provides a great opportunity for many of the world’s top sprinters to flex their muscles.  From that list, however, Tyler Farrar is conspicuously absent – mostly because the entire Garmin-Cervelo team is conspicuously absent.

Personally, I can’t wait.

Team Saxo Bank Sungard will be present in Adelaide, Australia for he 2011 Santos Tour Down Under.  Their roster, lead by Porte, will contain 3 Australian riders, but no Spaniards.

The full roster for the event includes:

• Baden Cooke (AUS)
• Juan Jose Haedo (ARG)
• Sebastian Haedo (ARG)
• Richie Porte (AUS)
• Nicki Sorensen (DEN)
• David Tanner (AUS)
• Brian Vandborg (DEN)

Regarding Richie Porte, Tour Down Under race director Mike Turtur was quoted as saying:

He’s a huge talent and could be Australia’s next big hope for the Grand Tours after Cadel Evans retires.

Team Radio Shack has just announced their team lineup for the Santos Tour Down Under to be held in Austrailia in January.  That includes or still-not-quite-retired rider Lance Armstrong, who will also be participating in the Cancer Council Classic.

The full team for the first race of the 2011 Pro Tour is made up of (in alphabetical order):

• Lance Armstrong
• Manuel Cardoso
• Ben Hermans
• Markel Irizar
• Robbie McEwen
• Gregory Rast
• Sébastien Rosseler

That’s right – Robbie McEwen.

The “two Robbies” – Robbie McEwen and Robbie Hunter – were picked up by Team Radio Shack.  The signing helps the two riders who found themselves out of options for riding at the Pro level when Pegasus Sports failed to procure a UCI Pro Continental license.

Lance had this to say about it on Twitter: