The bookies would have a tough time figuring out the odds for Sunday's Northern Sport Centre Prince George Triathlon at West Lake provincial park.
All bets are off on who's going to win the 34th annual event.
Last year's Olympic distance overall winners, Beth Hillhouse and Rob Millar, are not entered Sunday and Rob Vogt, the men's sprint winner from 2015, is also not racing and that makes it tough to call who will break the tape first in their respective categories.
Leanne Garrison, 31, the women's sprint winner, is back for more, among 31 entries in the sprint distance (750-metre swim, 20-kilometre bike, five-km run).
She will likely have a challenge on her hands holding off Gillian Roberts, 25, who placed second in the Olympic race last year, 20 seconds behind Hillhouse.
Roberts has switched to the sprint distance event.
"Gillian is a pretty good swimmer and a really good runner and if she can hold it together on the bike she will be a good contender," said race director Frank Blues.
Will Andal, 22, will try to improve on his second-place finish in the 2015 sprint.
One of the medal favourites in the men's Olympic race (1.5km swim, 40km ride, 10km run) is Quesnel mayor Bob Simpson.
Simpson, 60, did not race in Prince George last year but was third overall on the Olympic course in 2014. He won bronze at the 2002 age group world championships in Mexico.
Defending champion Dan Bedard is one of the most likely to emerge atop the list of five duathletes. The event consists of two five-km runs sandwiched around a 40km bike ride.
The PG Ol' Dawgs (Pat Turner, Matt MacLeod and Chris Lapointe) have the potential to be quick and as one of only three teams in the Olympic team category they are guaranteed a podium position. But they could have trouble fending off the mixed team of Sava Yungman (who swims competitively with the Prince George Barracudas), Sheena Jiang and Victor Liu.
This year's list of Olympic racers is down to 11, from 16 in 2015. There are 31 sprinters, up from 26 who entered in 2015. The total number of participants (58) on the entry list is 12 fewer than the 70 who raced last year.
Blues says the fickle summer weather in the city the past six weeks wasn't very encouraging for triathletes who might have been sitting on the fence, waiting for conditions to improve, and that likely has had a negative effect on the entry list.
"Particularly for cyclists, it hasn't been nice training weather," said Blues.
"Unfortunately, we didn't get going with some of our advertising until a little later and some of that might have contributed to us not getting the word out. I also think that there are only so many dollars people have and they are beginning to choose what they spend their money on from a bit more variety of events in the area.
"We certainly are planning for increased participation and we'll get our planning underway much earlier for next year's event. We're going to do some brainstorming after Sunday's event to look at what worked and areas for improvement."
Weather conditions could be ideal for Sunday's race, with sunny skies and a high 25 C predicted.
The Olympic distance race and duathlon start at 9 a.m., followed by the sprint start at 9:30 a.m. All racers are required to attend a technical briefing at 8 a.m.
The main parking lot will be closed from 9 a.m. to noon.
Spectator parking will remain open at the West Lake boat launch.
Motorists on Blackwater Road during the race are reminded to watch out for cyclists.
