Between them, Tim O’Shannessey, Michael Wilson and John Gregory reached the peak of Australian track, road and mountain biking and can’t wait to get the competitive juices flowing again when the 16th edition of the biennial sporting event is hosted in Northern Tasmania in October.

O’Shannessey, who won a bronze medal in the team pursuit at the 1996 Olympic Games, is eyeing the pursuit, points or scratch race when Launceston Silverdome hosts the cycling events of the Games, and is also considering tackling the time trial on the road at Ulverstone.

“It should be a good experience and is great for the state. It will be interesting to see how many people support it,” said the 44-year-old security officer on the Spirit of Tasmania.

O’Shannessey won a silver medal in the individual pursuit at the track masters in Sydney and is also training for the world track masters in Los Angeles to be held a fortnight before the Australian Masters Games.

Wilson, a vineyard owner from Legana, is keen to return to the road where he represented Australia at the 1980 Olympics and won stages of the tours of Italy, Spain and Switzerland in the 1980s.

The 57-year-old is keen to tackle a road race course around Stowport and possibly the mountain biking at Kelsey Tier and Penguin.

“It sounds like it’s going to be really good,” said Wilson, who regularly competes in Launceston City Cycling Club and Cycling Tasmania road races.

“When I heard a couple of years ago that it was coming I thought it was something to look forward to but now it’s getting closer it’s time to start planning my schedule.”

All three riders are regular mountain bikers but the specialist is Gregory who beat Cadel Evans to the national title at Thredbo in 1995 and also spent six years competing on the world cup circuit.

The 50-year-old sports scientist with the Tasmanian Institute of Sport has raced against Wilson and O’Shannessey in Launceston Mountain Bike Club enduros and won his category in both the King of the Mountain climb up Ben Lomond and the national marathon championships at Derby.

“Mountain biking is just a lot of fun, which is really important because it’s as much about the experience as the competition,” he said. “I will need a bit more training with winter coming on but I’m sure it should be fun.”

The Games run from October 21-28.

It is expected that more than 6000 participants will compete across 54 sports.