EXPECT them to be tired, dusty and probably just more than a little bit stuffed, but there will be plenty of partying when the last of the 2500 riders finish their final laps of the Scott 24 at Stromlo Forest Park today.
Over the 24-hour endurance event, this year's riders will have clocked up around 160,000km or the equivalent of four laps around the planet.
This year, there are the elite men's and women's riders in the 24-hour solo race, the 40-plus men's and women's solo race, then two, three, four and six-strong teams and more for corporate and schools.
It means that riders like 12-year-old Hamish Prosser, a Lyneham High School student racing in the junior Canberra off-road cyclists team, and 13-year-old Kyna Millan, in the Canberra Girls Grammar team, were on the same course as 66-year-old Andrew Tupalski.
Tupalski who travelled around Australia with his son Mark, 17, last year to race in all of the national mountain bike series, is a regular entrant in Canberra's marathon mountain bike races.
Tupalski was the first ski patrol officer at Guthega in 1957 and a ski patrol officer for 30 years, but he said mountain biking was his main focus now as skiing was ''extremely expensive and you have to book eight months in advance''. Unfortunately for the crowd though, Tupalski's promised floral tights didn't make an appearance yesterday as it was too hot.
The costumes were, indeed, fairly restrained, with feather-adorned helmets the main style statement in the transition area. That changeover area was packed and for the first time friends, family and team-mates could watch riders go through on course cameras linked back to a huge TV screen and lap times flashed up as each rider crossed the line. Some teams were also equipped with GPS systems this year to track each rider's progress around the course. Canberra off-road cyclists president Anthony Burton who is also riding laps this year said there were plans next year to have live GPS tracking through the website to broadcast internationally.
This weekend's entry figure won't break the record of almost 3000 riders in 2006, but Burton was happy with the turnout.
''We're still working out how to use the space at Stromlo, we've changed the transition a bit we've changed a few things and I think the event will grow again from here,'' he said.
''There are a lot of people here and a lot of smiles, so I'm happy.''