Twelve months down the track and it is a much different story.

Jamieson is putting the final polish on his performance in readiness for the 4000m team pursuit at the Beijing Olympic Games.

The scenario has been much the same for West Australian Cameron Meyer, who will ride in the points race on the track in Beijing.

He also rode in the national road cycling series, of which the grand prix is the second leg.

So who will be the next big name to emerge from what is this year is known as the Scody Cup?

Series managing director John Craven has no doubt another future international star will be among the riders in the three-day Australian Cycling Grand Prix on August 15-17.

In its third year, the grand prix will again double as the Victorian Men's Open Road Cycling Championships.

Craven said the series, which this year featured Tour of Gippsland (July 30-August 3), Tour of the Murray Rivers (August 31-September 7) and Tour of Tasmania (September 30-October 5) as well as Ballarat's grand prix, had long been a nursery for Australian road cycling.

He said numerous riders had ridden in the series before going on to establish themselves as world class professionals.

Tour de France stage winner Simon Gerrans, who is also off to Beijing for the road race, is among them.

Craven said it had given him a thrill to see Gerrans claim a victory in the world's greatest cycling event in the past week.

Craven is wrapt with the quality of an 81-strong field for next week's Tour of Gippsland and is confident of another year of record entries for the grand prix, which peaked at 330 (men and women) last year .

Ararat young gun William Ford is expected to head the field - returning to defend his Victorian Open Road Cycling Championships road title at Buninyong on the third day of the Ballarat sporting carnival.

Nineteen-year-old Travis Meyer will also be in Ballarat.

He has had significant wins this year - the Tour of Berlin and Tour of Wellington in New Zealand.

David Kemp, who won the road race championship in the inaugural grand prix two years ago, is also likely to be among entries.

Kemp is returning from the United States for the series.

Bernard Sulzberger is another overseas-based rider on his way back for the Scody Cup.

Sulzberger joined Malaysia's top team LeTua Cycling in February this year.

The grand prix begins with time-trials at Learmonth on Friday, August 15.

Criteriums will be contested in Sturt St in the Ballarat central business district on Saturday, August 16, before the cyclists hit the world-class road circuit at Buninyong on Sunday, August 17.