The ITU Cross Triathlon World Championships take place tomorrow in The Hague in the Netherlands. Britain’s elite and Age-Group athletes will hope their high-tech mountain bikes will power them to triathlon success on the challenging beach and trail course.

Great Britain’s team includes world champion, Lesley Patterson, who starts as favourite tomorrow ahead of Switzerland’s Renata Bucher and British team mate Jacqui Slack.

Patterson, the 32 year old USA based Scot, won the ITU world title last year in Alabama as well as retaining the Xterra world title in Maui for the second year running. However, experience on this course will benefit those, such as 2012 European Cross Triathlon Champion Helena Erbenova (CZE), that have ridden and succeeded the course before.

The elite men’s race features another multiple world champion, Conrad Stoltz of South Africa. Great Britain’s representatives include Asa Shaw, Doug Hall and Scotland’s Rory Downie, who won the Under 23 European title here last year.

Plymouth University student, Sam Parker, races in the U23 category, which starts and races alongside the senior event.

Great Britain has a good Age-Group team including some who won ETU European titles here in 2012 and will benefit from the experience, particularly of handling their bikes on soft sand.

The race starts with a mass run into the sea, which will feature challenging surf waves. The bike section is on the beach and surrounding trails. It features dunes, soft sand and hills. The run is also on dunes and the finish is on the crowded boulevard of the seaside resort of Kijkduin (The Hague).

Elite, U23 and Age-Group athletes will cover a 1km swim, 26km bike ride over four laps and a 9km run over three laps.