The Contact Epic Round Lake Hawea race, now in its second year, has 125km and a 95km options, with both defending women's champions, Kath Kelly of Miller's Flat (125km) and Sarah Gillespie of Dunedin (95km), among the confirmed entrants for this year's races.
Kelly won her race last year in a time of 5hr 26min 35sec, while Gillespie finished her event in 6hr 5min 38sec.
Neither of the defending men's champions, Marcus Roy of Dunedin (125km, 4hr 44min 8sec) or Hayden Wilkinson of Lake Hawea (95km, 4hr 32min 8sec), have entered yet this year, possibly leaving the field open for other top riders such as David Drake of Wanaka, who was second last year and just five minutes behind Roy.
This year, Drake is up against Steve Gurney of Christchurch, Geof Blance of Alexandra and Mark Williams of Queenstown.
Contact Epic organiser Danielle Nicholson of LMC Events said entries should be slightly up on last year, with 520 riders already confirmed.
There were 520 in the inaugural race.
Adding interest to the race is the large number of North Island riders seeking out some southern competition.
Mrs Nicholson said the North Island entries included 15 riders from Tauranga, who are staying a week in the district, and six from Whakatane.
Meanwhile, entries have already closed for the Naseby 12 Hour Challenge, now in its fifth year and organised by Mountain Biking Otago.
The Naseby event has attracted about 650 riders, and 144 teams of up to five riders and 20 keen individuals will cycle as many times around a 10km loop in the Naseby Forest as they can between 9am and 9pm.
The team or the individual logging the most completed laps wins.
Top individual riders in this event include Tony Hogg of Dunedin, who rode the fastest lap last year in 24min 38sec and won the overall individual category with 23 laps in 11hr 40min 46sec.
Five individual riders have entered the single-speed category for bikes without gears, including Mark Goodwin of Wanaka.
