Tyler Butterfield will finally get to tick off the Challenge Roth triathlon from his bucket list tomorrow.

Fit again after battling illness and injury, the Bermuda triathlete said he was in “good form” and that the chance to compete at the German event had helped “kick-start” his recovery.

Butterfield has been waiting a long time to compete in one of the sport’s most iconic races and said it had first come to his attention as a 14-year-old in Bermuda.

Now, after several years of missing out, he can compete in one of the events that he said “motivates me to train”.

In an interview with triathlon.competitor.com Butterfield said he had been waiting since 2013 to get to grips with the race.

“When I was seventh in Kona [in 2013] I was excited to do it [Roth],” he said. “People told me that if you do well in Kona, Roth generally helps you out to get there.

“I wanted to go, but it was the same weekend as the Commonwealth Games that year [2014] and I was already racing for Bermuda.

“But Roth has always been on my bucket list. I’ve been doing triathlon since I was seven, and at around 14 I started to buy triathlon magazines and I remember seeing Lothar Leder on the cover of one of the magazines when he broke the world record in Roth.”

Butterfield will be one of an estimated 3,400 athletes, professional and amateur, expected to race in Bavaria this weekend, and all are expected to be chasing Jan Frodeno.

The reigning Ironman world champion, reigning Ironman 70.3 world champion and Olympic gold medal winner is the clear favourite to win, and has his sights set on breaking Andreas Raelert’s record of 7hr 41min 33sec.

Nils Frommhold, the defending champion, may have something to say about that, and his time of 7:51:28 in winning last year is seventh fastest at the distance.

Butterfield believes having Frodeno and Frommhold on the start line “makes the race more legitimate” and the Bermuda triathlete is looking forward to testing himself against the two Germans.

“I like racing Jan and Nils, just for the fact that even if they beat me, I know where I am in terms of my fitness,” Butterfield said. “When I heard Jan was doing it I thought, great! It changes the race and it makes the race more legitimate.

“It’s similar to Kona, it’s similar to a world championship field. You want to race those guys. Then if you have a good day, you know it was a good day.”