Given the absence of some of Bermuda’s professional cyclists and six-times winner Dominique Mayho from the Sinclair Packwood Memorial race, Australian Matt Boys will be favourite to win the race for a second time.

With Kaden Hopkins, Conor White and Nicholas Narraway on the professional circuit in Guadeloupe, England and Spain respectively and new father Mayho opting to take part in the Bermuda Half-Marathon Derby, Boys could have been forgiven for thinking that he will have another solo ride to victory.

But the Sinclair Packwood Memorial field got a whole lot stronger a couple of days before the event with Olympian Tyler Butterfield throwing his cycling helmet into the ring.

Butterfield, who competed as a triathlete for Bermuda at two Olympic Games in 2004 and 2012, finished eleventh in the cycling road race at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and competed for Team Slipstream, a UCI Professional team in Spain a year later.

The 42-year-old got a look at Boys when finishing second to him in the VT Construction Road Race on Sunday and those in the know suggest he will be more competitive just five days later after he replaces his off-road tyres with more suitable racing ones.

If any spectator lining the route blinks as the peloton powers past there is a good chance that they might miss a three-times champion making a return to the race.

Wayne Scott, who won the race in 2004, 2008 and 2010 will again be donning the Lycra and while it may be too fanciful to consider him a leading contender, who knows what might be possible when the competitive juices start to flow again.

Another veteran taking to the start line is Tracy Wright, who is the only cyclist competing to take part in the first race in 1987, which was won by Buddy Ford.

Among the younger riders, Jackson Langley crashed during the race last year, costing him any chance of a high finish. Recently recovered from a broken collarbone, he is capable of bustling up the best in the field.