With the Tokyo Olympics just six months away, time is running out for athletes to stake their claim for selection.
So they've been going to great lengths to get it, with many of New Zealand's top athletes contesting the usually low-key Tour de Ranges cycle race in South Auckland.
Triathletes Ryan Sissons and Tayler Reid are no strangers to the road bike.
But swapping their usual 40km in for Saturday's 110km race is far from what they're used to.
"Progressively to have this in our legs is just gonna be a huge benefit, just throwing this on top of our usual training is a bit extra on top," Reid told Newshub.
It's the second year in a row Reid and Sissons have entered the race and the pair expect to see the benefits on the international triathlon circuit.
After the 2019 event, Sissons immediately noticed the impact.
"That showed at New Plymouth last year," Sissons said.
"I rode from the second group to the front with one other guy and it certainly does help, you get some really good legs on the bike and hopefully that'll help leading into the first few races of the season."
Reid and Sissons were joined by fellow triathlete Nicole van der Kaay.
While track cyclist Ally Woollaston won silver in the women's elite as she chases a spot in the women's endurance track team at Tokyo.
"I think getting a road base is so important for the track, especially the longer endurance races without that road base I think you'd really struggle," Woollaston said.
The 18-year-old is new to the endurance team but has seen first hand how beneficial that road base can be.
"All of the older girls have this massive road base so they can go for miles and miles and repeated efforts and keep going and going with repeated efforts, whereas i get to that point and start dropping off."
With just six months left until the Olympics in Tokyo, athlete's are leaving nothing to chance, as they vie for their ticket.
