Olympic medallists, world champions and the future stars of New Zealand track cycling will take centre stage in Invercargill this week.
The national track championships start at the Stadium Southland velodrome tomorrow with nearly 150 riders lining up in the event.
Cycling Southland general manager Mark Hotton said the event was last held in Invercargill in 2014 and attracted large vocal crowds, which were expected to return again for four days of intense fast-paced action.
''This is going to be a fantastic event for spectators. We'll have members of the current New Zealand team that competed at the Olympics in Rio last year, development riders vying for national selection as well as junior world track champions such as Southlanders Bradly Knipe, Emma Cumming and Tom Sexton starting to emerge,'' he said.
''They'll all be looking ahead to the world cups and world championships this year, but this is also where their campaign begins for selection for the Commonwealth Games in Australia next year.''
The event would provide the first opportunity for Southlanders to see home-grown hero Eddie Dawkins racing since he was part of the team sprint that won a silver medal at the Rio Olympics.
''We love to see Southlanders racing and beating the best riders in the country and it will be the perfect opportunity to see Eddie and his team-mates [than Mitchell and Sam Webster] in action.
''Only this time theyll be racing against each other,'' Hotton said.
''They're extremely competitive world-class cyclists so I'm sure they'll be looking for any chance to get one up on each other. I've heard they've been tearing up the track in training and I'm sure Eddie will want to beat them in front of his fans.''
Action starts tomorrow with time trial finals and under-19 scratch races, while the sprinters starts on Friday.
Racing on Saturday gets intense with the finals of the keirin while on Sunday the team events, including the spectator-favourite Madison, round out a hectic event.
