The field for the championships has just been released and Henderson, who rides for the Lotto Soudal team, will have to take on fully-fledged UCI World Tour professionals Sam Bewley, Jesse Sergent, George Bennett and Patrick Bevin.
Henderson, who is back in the country on a short break, has finished second in the race four times.
Also lining up in a star-studded field is defending champion Joseph Cooper of Wellington, elite Cycling New Zealand track riders Cameron Karwowski and Alex Frame, and United Kingdom-based riders Tom Scully and Mike Northey.
Young professionals James Oram and Dion Smith, both from Auckland, will make their first appearance in the elite grade.
In the women's race, it will be the first time a world champion will line up.
Linda Villumsen became the first New Zealander to win a UCI World Championship on the road when she won the time trial world title in the United States in September.
The Christchurch-based rider has confirmed she will defend her national road championship honours won in Christchurch early this year.
Villumsen heads an excellent women's field that includes 2010 and 2014 champion Rushlee Buchanan, 2013 winner Courtney Lowe, and double Olympian Joanne Kiesanowski, who won national honours in Hawkes Bay in 2003.
More than 100 elite riders will contest the championships which forms part of a Summer Cycling Carnival in Hawkes Bay led by the national time trial and road titles on January 8-10.
The road-race course comprises a long loop around the Puketapu circuit before returning for several laps over an exciting inner-city course that takes in the testing Napier Hill and finishes on Marine Parade.
The time trials are on January 8 and the elite women's road race over 117km, including 4.5 loops of the inner-city course, is on January 9.
The elite and under-23 men's race over 180km, with 7.5 laps in the Napier city centre, is on January 10.
