Landing a World Tour contract for the third time in his roller-coaster career, the 31-year-old Tasmanian says he has plenty left on his bucket list.

“It’s a big opportunity for me,” Clarke said from his home in Campbell Town.

“There’s definitely a few things I’d still like to do. I’d like to race a Grand Tour.

“It’s looking more likely that it will be the Vuelta [Tour of Spain]. The Tour de France is obviously the big one but it might take a few years to build up to that.

“We’re a World Tour team so automatically get a start in the three Grand Tours. We have nine riders in each and there’s 27 on our team and I’ll put my hand up to do one of them and think the Vuelta is most likely but you never know, anything is possible.

“Hopefully, I can get on a squad for one of those next year.”

Affectionately known as Big Horse for his formidable workrate, Clarke admitted he doubted whether he would return to a World Tour stable.

“Having raced in big teams a couple of times before I did wonder. But my best results have been in smaller teams when I’ve had a more free role and this has been my best year results-wise. Hopefully I can continue to do well.”

Like fellow Tasmanian Richie Porte, who will spearhead BMC’s Tour team, Clarke began cycling with Andrew Christie-Johnston’s Tasmanian-based Praties team in 2008.

He joined the Schleck brothers’ Leopard Trek in 2011, riding alongside the likes of Stuart O’Grady, Jens Voigt and Fabian Cancellara, dropped down to pro-continental level for a couple of seasons before another World Tour contract with Argos Shimano in 2013, supporting the likes of Marcel Kittel and John Degenkolb.

He has since spent three years at Drapac which is merging with Cannondale to become a World Tour outfit.

Asked if he had a point to prove at the top level, Clarke said: “I think so. I think I can still achieve a few more things. I don’t think I’m past it yet even though I’m nearly 32. I had my best year this year so feel I can still improve.”

The former Launceston Church Grammar School student’s five wins equalled Caleb Ewan for the most by an Australian in 2016.

He took out stage wins in the Herald-Sun Tour, Tour of Taiwan (two) plus the tours of Austria and Portugal.

Clarke said the 18 riders on his team knew that owner Michael Drapac had a dream to get into the Tour de France so aspired to join the World Tour.

“Everyone knew fairly early about the merger so had ample time to either figure out that if they wanted to join they had to lift their game or look at opportunities outside of cycling.

“I had some good results early on in the year and when I got a few more wins I knew I had probably done enough to get over the line.

“I spent the year attempting to accumulate enough decent results to justify being retained and it was probably about July time I started to feel confident I had done enough.

“In cycling there is always something going on with teams and everyone is affected in some way, you’ve just got to make the most of your opportunities and do the best you can.”

Ultimately, only Clarke, Victorian Brendan Canty and Tom Scully, of New Zealand, were signed up by the new Cannondale-Drapac team, as two fellow Tasmanians were squeezed out.

Legana’s Bernie Sulzberger made the call to end his distinguished cycling career while Hobart’s Nathan Earle was left seeking alternative employment and will ride for a new team at road nationals in January.

The Ballarat championship will also represent Clarke’s first appointment in new colours.

“I will start up with the national road race then Tour Down Under and Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race then my sister [Elle] is getting married back here in February. After that I will head over to Europe and my first race is in France.”

Clarke is trying to get a visa to live in Spain with his American-Australian team based in Girona in the region of Catalonia.

Having contested such classics as the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2013, Clarke is excited about returning to the top table.

However, his major World Tour win came for the Australian national team, when he orchestrated a Tour Down Under stage breakaway in 2012, and he said bigger teams does not always mean better results.

“Being on bigger teams sometimes you get shuffled down in the pecking order so I may have to work for others but Cannondale like to give riders a chance to go for themselves so I should still be able to go for results.”

Clarke’s final commitment in the distinctive red of Drapac will be the Tasmanian Christmas criterium series where he will be defending his crown on home soil.

The series begins at Westbury at 6.15pm on Boxing Day, continues at Ulverstone at noon on Thursday, December 29, and concludes at Burnie at 6.15pm on New Year’s Eve.

“I won the series last year and it’ll be good to go back and see where my form is for the upcoming summer and sharpen up,” he said.

“They are very short, just 30 to 40 kilometres, so are done in about 40 or 50 minutes. In contrast, big tours can be six hours in a day and potentially for three weeks which is obviously a bit different, but it’s good intensity.

“Plus it’s always good to ride in Tasmania where I started racing.”