Price will compete in the 81km marathon race at Langkawi next month, as he looks to qualify for the world champs, while the trio from Rotorua will target the six-day stage race.
During the stage race, riders will race one stage each day which vary in size from 2.4km (prologue) to 81km (stage three).
"It is a new experience, I have never done a stage race before," Peters said.
"Racing for six days, day after day, it will be interesting to see how the body handles it."
Despite the testing conditions, there is plenty of incentive for top riders who attend. Upwards of US$150,000 is being put up for prize money this year.
Peters said all the top international cross country riders would be there. He said the world champs were held two weeks ago and this was a chance to end the season with a fun event for a lot of riders.
Jones said they heard about the event during another big mountain bike race last year.
"Last year we were in China during a race and everyone was going to this [event] after that race."
Jones said they put forward CVs to the organisers this year before receiving an invitation to compete in the elite men's and women's races. BikeNZ then granted them permission to represent New Zealand at the big event.
Jones said it was a good way to prepare for the up-coming New Zealand mountain bike season.
"It is the end of the season for most people [in the Northern Hemisphere] but we are just starting to ramp up to our season."
O'Neill said they were looking forward to the event and hoped to finish in the prize money.
"I would like to sneak into a top-10 place but I don't know who is going ... and how we will handle stage racing, so there is a lot of unknowns."
O'Neill said she had struggled with injury during the past couple of seasons but was feeling a lot better going into this season.
