Challenge Wanaka's defending champions, Marc Pschebizin, of Germany, and Gina Ferguson, of Christchurch, are hoping to repeat their record-breaking performances of last year when they cross the finish line today.
Ferguson (28) finished in a women's course record of 9hr 33min 46sec last year, while Pschebizin (35) set a men's time of 8hr 47min 49sec.
Both have to scrub off at least 33min from those times to win a bonus $5000 prize, which they said at a media conference in Wanaka yesterday would be unlikely given the roughly sealed nature of the road surface for the bike course, the overall terrain and today's unsettled weather forecast.
But they would still like to go faster than last year, with other athletes agreeing it was possible to take the record down 10 minutes in the right conditions.
Pschebizin said he was prepared to suffer on the 180km bike leg and had been training in extreme and snowy conditions in Germany to be mentally prepared for the likely winds and rain expected today.
"Tough conditions, that would be good for me. If it was a smooth [bike] ride, I won't apologise, that would be nice.
"But I think it is a hard ride, a fair race for everybody. Everybody has to do the same ride," Pschebizin said.
Pschebizin won last year because of his fast marathon run, which he completed in 2hr 48min to overhaul Chris McDonald (30), of Australia, and beat him by just 2min.
Pschebizin said he hopes he has a similar run in him today, but McDonald, who also wants the title, said he hoped not.
"I probably won't keep up. But hopefully I will be far enough in front [on the bike] that it won't matter," McDonald said.
McDonald is one of the strongest cyclists in the field and believes the nature of the pavement is such that the course record could not be reduced by 30 minutes.
Anyone who could do that in Wanaka should be able to break the course record at Challenge Roth in Germany, which is acknowledged as the fastest long-distance triathlon course in the world with an excellent cycle surface, McDonald said.
Luke Van Lierde set the Challenge Roth course record of 7hr 50min in 1997.
Ferguson has been cycling around the South Island in preparation for the race and will continue through the West Coast, Nelson and Marlborough afterwards.
She said yesterday she did not feel any different before Challenge Wanaka to any other race and her goal was to do the best she could.
She had recovered well from her last race in Western Australia and had taken a two week break over Christmas before beginning her cycling build-up.
Ferguson said she felt fit and strong and did not have a time goal, because the conditions were likely to be different.
Ferguson enjoyed the 35degC temperatures at last year's Challenge Wanaka and did not like the cold, she said.
Hillary Biscay (31), of the United States, is one of the fastest female swimmers in international long-distance triathlon, although Ferguson beat her out of Lake Wanaka last year.
Biscay said yesterday nothing would give her more pleasure than for Ferguson and herself to beat all the men out of the water today.
Biscay has come off a heavy programme of nine races last year and is fighting fit.
She enjoys extreme conditions and was looking forward to today's race against Ferguson.
"Pouring rain, extreme heat - we don't come down here to do something easy, so why not go all the way," Biscay said.
The pro-elite category today includes Merryn Johnston, of Wanaka, Keegan Williams, of New Zealand, Luke Dragstra, of Canada, Justin Granger, of Australia, and Petr Vabrousek, of the Czech Republic.
Individuals start in Roys Bay at 7am and teams at 9am.
