Olympians and world champions feature among the field getting closely acquainted with the back roads of Evandale and Railton, although not necessarily of the pedalling kind.

Hamish Bond is sporting royalty in his native New Zealand. The 32-year-old is a world record-holding double Olympic and eight-time world championship gold medallist.

This was all achieved in rowing but a switch to cycling after the Rio Olympic Games has already paid dividends with Bond winning time trial bronze at last year’s Oceania champs and gold at the New Zealand titles.

In his second appearance at the event, the Kiwi will be hoping to emulate previous rowing converts Cam Wurf and Drew Ginn, who won the time trials in 2007 and 2009 respectively.

But Bond can expect to be shaken and stirred at an event which has helped launch the careers of WorldTour graduates like Michael Matthews, Cameron Meyer and Luke Durbridge – respective road race winners in 2009, ’13 and ’14. 

Melbourne’s Sean Lake, 27, has dominated the last two championships, winning both elite road race and time trial titles and heads a list of challengers dominated by the cream of the National Road Series.

While the championships are an individual event, several cycling teams will be involved including Andrew Christie-Johnston’s Hobart-based Bennelong SwissWellness and Drapac, both of whom were notable absentees from this year’s Tour of Tasmania.

The 155 riders tackling the road race and 111 lining up for the time trial include many with fond memories of Tasmanian terrain.

Western Australian Tyler Lindorff won the 2016 Launceston Wheel, Mitchell Wright, of NSW, was named the champion of champions when the 2016 junior track nationals were held at the Silverdome, South Australian Maeve Plouffe is a Burnie and Devonport wheelrace winner while last year’s Tour of Tasmania champion Lionel Mawditt and yellow jersey wearers James Whelan and Alexander Evans all return from Victoria. 

Some 30 Tasmanians will also hit their home-state bitumen.

Hobart mountain bike convert Scott Bowden will contest the road race – a discipline he also tackled at the Rio Olympics – Wyena’s newly-crowned under-23 Australian mountain bike champion Alex Lack will also shift to slimmer tyres while the European and National Road Series experience of Launceston’s Oliver Martin, Josh Wilson and Tom Robinson could prove pivotal.

A bumper home-state representation in the under-23s includes Zack Gilmore (Launceston City), Iven Bennett, Renee Dykstra (City of Burnie), Blair Austin, Jake Oliver (Mersey Valley), Nathan Aver and Cuan Van Staden (Hobart Wheelers).

Launceston City’s Sean Hughes-Roberts, Josh Duffy, Brodie Graesser, Henley James-Smith, Riley McGovern, Cameron McPherson and Zach Johnson line up in the under-19s along with Anya Louw (Mersey Valley), Amalia Langham, Oscar Varney (City of Burnie), Daniel Di Domenico and Mitchell Gittus (Hobart Wheelers).

Mersey Valley clubmates Patrick Best and Matthew Brumby will contest a para time trial also featuring St Kilda’s 56-year-old triple Paralympic champion and seven-time world champion Carol Cooke.

Tasmanians have enjoyed considerable success at previous championships.

Wurf, of Hobart, won time trial gold in 2007 and bronze eight years later, while Will Clarke, of Campbell Town, added a silver in 2014, the same year that Flowery Gully’s Bernard Sulzberger claimed road race bronze.

Sulzberger’s sister Grace won a time trial silver in 2013, Campbell Flakemore won back-to-back time trial silver medals in 2013-14 en route to claiming a world title and Madeleine Fasnacht, also of Hobart, won gold and bronze in last year’s under-19 road race and time trial. 

Cycling Tasmania executive officer Collin Burns was happy with field and course.

“There are nearly 70 riders coming from New Zealand, including 18 under-19s, all complete with support staff, which is fantastic from an economic perspective,” he said.

“The time trial is an excellent course out to Nile and back. It can be really testing out there if it gets windy. The under-19 course is pretty flat but the others will have to tackle a few hills.

“The road race is a cracker of a course along some of the roads used in the Mersey Valley Tour. We had to amend it because of some roadworks so instead of climbing the Bridle Track Road it descends it, but riders still have to tackle the Stoodley Climb which is 6km and averages 3 per cent so still quite challenging.”