Tasmanian Alex Clements is among the riders planning to use his home-state criterium series as a lead-in to the road national titles in Victoria just a week later.

‘‘I did all of them last year and they were really good training for nationals,’’ Clements said.

‘‘Except for the Launceston Classic, we have not raced since the end of September, so this provides a really good build-up.

‘‘They were well organised and worked in well with the carnivals, getting better numbers, so the track guys are all in really good form.’’

A Tasmanian Institute of Sport scholarship holder and member of Andrew Christie-Johnston’s Hobart-based Avanti team, Clements said the quality of the opposition last year – including Jack Bobridge, Nathan Earle, Matt Goss, Will Clarke and Bernie and Wes Sulzberger – represented exactly the test he required.

‘‘It had some good riders involved, so was solid, hard racing and what we need going into road nationals, which you can’t get from just training.’’

The 21-year-old former Scotch Oakburn student will contest the under-23 criterium and road race in Ballarat before embarking on his final season in the age group with the national world tour academy team, which also supported Hobart’s Campbell Flakemore to this year’s time trial world title in Spain.

‘‘I have not really thought about seniors, I’m just focused on my last year, getting results in the under-23s in Europe and looking forward to giving that a good crack and stringing a few results together. This year will be a good opportunity for me,’’ Clements said.

‘‘Last year’s highlight was finishing off at the road worlds, where Caleb (Ewan) got second in the road race.’’

Clements has been preparing for the crit series training with Team Sky pros Richie Porte and 2013 Tour de France winner Chris Froome, which he said was a valuable learning experience. ‘‘I just learned how hard those guys train. They’ve been putting in some pretty solid miles for guys with such a long season ahead. It’s pretty impressive to see what they do.’’