Ellis had almost two months off after making his Olympic debut in Beijing but last week won the men's individual sprint final in the Oceania championships in Adelaide over fellow Australian Shane Perkins.

Today he'll line up in qualifying for the men's team sprint in the Melbourne World Cup event, before tackling the individual sprint later in the three-day program.

And while Ellis feels he's still a bit underdone, he can't wait to race in front of the Australian crowd.

''We're a little bit flat from the Oceania games, but tomorrow's another day and the atmosphere is going to be pretty awesome,'' Ellis said. ''I've come into it with only about two or three weeks' training, but you wouldn't want to miss the opportunity to ride in front of a home crowd.''

Today he will ride in one of two Australian teams looking to qualify for the men's team sprint final. And despite having just turned 20, Ellis will be the team leader in his three-man sprint team with Scott Sunderland, 20, and Jason Niblett, 25.

''It's a bit weird,'' Ellis laughed. ''I really wouldn't say I'm the more experienced rider, I mean we all have experience behind us. I suppose you could say it's a bit of a leadership role and I suppose just with the experience from the Games I can tell the guys how different it's going to be.''

While this week's World Cup round offers points towards world championship qualification, Ellis said he'd be happy to build on his fitness and experience over the next three days as he worked his way back into heavy training.

''I won the sprint at the Oceania [Games] last week, but it's a whole different task against this international field, so if I can just try and do some reasonable times in the first lap of the team sprint and then in the first 200m of the individual sprint I'll be happy,'' he said. ''If it gets me to a medal or anything like that I'll be super happy.''

Last week's Oceania Games, marked the start of a new elite cycling season for Ellis. After a hectic 2008 which included competing at the world championships in Britain, the Oceania championships and then finishing an agonising 0.008sec short of a bronze medal in the team sprint at Beijing, Ellis said he was still pondering where his next year might take him.

But it will include an assault on the 2009 world championships in Poland early next year.

''I'm still thinking about what I'm going to be doing ... but at the moment the aim is a starter for the team sprint at world championships,'' Ellis said.