The biggest cycling event in the sport's history starts tonight in Scotland with more than 200 events combining for the first time to make one mega world championships.
New Zealand will be represented by 86 riders at the event, which some in cycling circles are now dubbing the "mini Olympics".
New Zealand's big four — mountain, road, BMX and track — are just a few of the 13 different disciplines that would usually host their own world championship events but now they're all together, along with para athletes, competing at the same time in the same place.
All up, it's more than 200 events over 11 days of competition, spanning from Glasgow to the Nevis Range.
Kiwi cycling star Aaron Gate said it's a massive undertaking.
"It's the first time that the UCI, the International Cycling Union, has decided to combine basically every single cycling event into the world championships at one time, so Glasgow has been brave enough to try and put that on and pull it all together," Gate said.
"You can see there's been a lot of work that's had to go in and it's a lot of extra work for our staff to make it all happen — the logistics people have been run off their feet making it all work.
"It's definitely been a big strain on everybody involved but I think it's pretty cool."
Gate joked it has led to some pre-racing bustling though.
"[There's] five other nations there as big as us — the dining hall is definitely chaotic!"
But with the Paris Olympics next year, Gate added it's the perfect time for Kiwi riders to test themselves against the world's best on a stage almost as large.
"It's a nice, wee dress rehearsal," he said.
"The Olympics is always special and I think for people that haven't been to one before it can be quite daunting so this perhaps helps to bridge the gap."
New Zealand's team is full of Olympians and Commonwealth Games champions so there's high hopes for a big medal haul.
"We just come off a training camp which was great to get everyone back together over there in Europe and had our final little tune up session on the velodrome today," Gate said.
"It all went well, the guys are all travelling well so we're all looking forward to just getting stuck in."
The world championships run from tonight until Sunday, August 13, with New Zealand's first competitors not up until Friday night in the both track and mountain bike events.
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