youngsters to pull off a surprise victory in Monday's Heritage Day cycle race.

MacInnis Looby played down his own chances, saying merely that the 12-mile contest would be a good warm-up for the Mini Worlds in Cuba next weekend, to put his money on Nuri Latham.

"He's young, has lots of energy and is just as fit as the senior guys,'' said Looby. "All the juniors are good, like Tyler (Butterfield) but Nuri is a better sprinter.'' Payne, 58, who won last year, has already said he expects Latham, Butterfield and Jonathon Herring to play a major role this year.

Looby, though, is looking forward to the "intensity'' of the race as he sets his sights on gold in the Kilo in Cuba. Last year he took bronze but he is confident he can do better this time.

Of Monday's race, he said: "It's not really my intention to win it. But it's more or less the perfect intensity to prepare for Cuba even thought it's about 14 times the distance.

"Once I go out hard, the others behind are going to have to go just as hard.

It takes your body to another level. It's going to be a hard race.

"But if it rains it will play into my favour because a lot of the other guys don't corner well. I learned to corner well when racing in the US. It's given me a lot of confidence.'' However, he is hoping there's no repeat of last year's race when the pack allowed Payne and Aaron Schindler to break away early and never managed to make up the ground.

"A lot of guys are looking for a free ride. But I don't want what happened last year to happen again. They're going to have to respond.''