The countdown is on for New Zealand's pinnacle road cycling event, the Tour of Southland – and it comes with a "pretty gruelling" twist.
This year, stage four of the eight-stage event – from Mossburn to the Remarkables – will have some extra spice.
"It's probably the hardest climb," 2022 Tour of Southland champion Josh Burnett said.
"It's a 40-minute to an hour-long climb for some guys so it's definitely pretty gruelling."
Burnett, who also won the stage four event at his debut in 2021, is well aware of the challenges involved.
This time, the 24-year-old is preparing to tackle a whole new beast with his MitoQ-NZ Cycling team.
Four kilometres have been added to the climb, making it a 10km slog.
"It's a massive difference and a really key part of this race this year," he said.
"The old finish was still a big 20-minute effort and that was tough but now you get there and you realise you're only kind of halfway so it definitely changes the whole dynamic."
It's a change that's vital for riders here in New Zealand following the demise of the NZ Cycle Classic.
The Tour of Southland is now the only multi-stage road cycling race that remains and it's big climbs like the Remarkables that help riders record data to help attract interest from overseas teams.
"This is the type of climb that they're going to have to tackle if they make it on the big show in Europe," MitoQ-NZ Cycling Project founder James Canny said.
"Every single ride that Josh [Burnett] and other members of our team do is recorded. They have power meters and those power meters show their output power and output and watts – just like you would to run a lightbulb.
"If you're putting out a certain amount of power and then you're backing that up with results – ideally wins – then a team is always going to take notice and say, 'well this is perhaps a rough diamond all the way down from New Zealand that we can take a chance on'."
That's what happened for Burnett.
Two years ago, the cyclist became the first Southlander to win the race in almost 30 years. The win helped springboard the young Kiwi's career into a contract with Black Spoke before it folded last year. Now, he's about to take up a contract with Spanish pro-continental team Burgos BH.
Canny said the "real challenge is getting them noticed".
"We are about as far away from the Tour de France sort of scene as you can get and unlike a lot of the riders in Europe, you can't just pop home on the weekend if you have a crash and things are tough. You've got to be mentally as well as really physically tough to make it in that kind of European environment."
The Tour of Southland is hoped to unearth some more diamonds among the Southland rough.
But in Burnett's last ride here before joining his new team, he's gunning to reclaim his title.
"It was probably one of the best experiences I've ever had having the community out supporting me and all my friends and family on the roads watching," Burnett said.
"I know that they'll all be back and they're all kind of expecting somewhat of the same thing."
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