Athens Olympic medallists Hamish Carter and Bevan Docherty will compete in the lucrative Lifetime Fitness triathlon in the United States on Sunday (NZT).
The pair will be joined by fellow New Zealander Kris Gemmell and some of the sport's big players in the $745,000 invitation event, which pits men against
women in Minneapolis.
Another Athens Olympian, Nathan Richmond, will defend his ITU World Cup title in New Foundland. North Harbour's Terenzo Bozzone will also compete there.
Wellington's Evelyn Williamson continues her comeback at the Holten International Triathlon in the Netherlands.
It is the fourth Lifetime Fitness race, with the women given a handicap start between 10 and 12 minutes for the Olympic-distance race where the overall winner will take home $372,500.
While the sport's ruling body does not endorse the format of the race, the novel concept and big prizemoney has drawn most of the big names, including five medallists from the Athens games, Sydney 2000 gold medallist Simon Whitfield and current world No 1 Hunter Kemper.
The female athletes have had the upper hand in the previous three years, won twice by American Barb Lindquist and last year by Athens silver medallist Loretta Harrop (Australia).
The New Zealand trio have been training in Canada in their build-up to September's ITU World Championships in Japan.
Meanwhile, Richmond and Bozzone face tests in the ITU World Cup race in Corner Brook on Monday (NZ time).
Richmond, slow to get his season back into stride after Athens, has trained well in Australia for this race.
Bozzone, 20, showed recently he had done the endurance work with his half ironman performances in New Zealand and the United States. He will also compete in Edmonton next week.
Bozzone needs two strong performances to cement sufficient ITU points to qualify for the elite ranks for September's world championships.
Meanwhile Kapiti Coast triathlete Williamson started her campaign towards Japan with victory in the ITU Asian Continental Cup race in China last weekend.
She has joined Shane Reed at the ITU European Cup race in Holten.
Reed made a strong start to the season with victories at the St Croix half ironman and the Obernai Triathlon in France.
- NZPA
