Sam Welsford and Jai Hindley are the lethal cycling double act that will be right at home in the uncertainty of the men's Australian championship road race.
No-one is sure what will happen on Sunday when the men's and women's elite titles are decided.
After many years of grumblings that a change was needed from the successful Buninyong circuit outside Ballarat, the nationals are in Perth for the first time since 1997.
Sunday's road races are the highlights of the nationals and they will be held on a 13.6km circuit at King's Park.
The women will have eight laps of the technical course, which features a punchy climb up Malcolm St, 400m from the finish, for a total of 109km.
The men's race will follow, with 13 laps and 177km.
Welsford and Hindley are two of the best-credentialled riders in the men's race. They are from Perth and teammates at Red Bull BORA Hansgrohe on the WorldTour.
They are also completely different riders - Welsford, a member of the gold-medal winning team pursuit squad at the Paris Olympics velodrome, is a sprinter on the road.
Hindley, who became only the second Australian after Cadel Evans to win a Grand Tour at the 2022 Giro d'Italia, is a climber.
After showing his form by winning Friday night's national criterium title for the second time, Welsford joked that he wasn't sure whether he would work for Hindley on Sunday, or vice versa.
"Maybe I will be doing some chasing for him ... play the game a bit," Welsford said.
"We'll have to see, it depends how the race is ridden. It's going to be different on this course, because no-one has done it before and no-one knows is it easier to bring the break back, can the break go?
"It's going to be interesting. It's going to be super-hard, it's going to be a lot harder than people expect, especially after 10-12 laps in.
"It's going to take its toll up Malcolm St."
Since GreenEDGE became Australia's only WorldTour team more than a decade ago, they have been at the centre of how the men's and women's road races play out. Their Jayco AlULA men's team and Liv AlUla Jayco team have the quality and strength of numbers.
Indeed, Jayco AlUla's Luke Plapp is the three-time defending champion and also won the time trial on Thursday.
Ruby Roseman-Gannon will defend her women's crown and teammate Amber Pate won the women's criterium on Friday with a daring solo break.
"Jayco have a lot of numbers out there and they obviously have super-strong guys (in) the TT, you could see the results," Welsford said.
Plapp will have four teammates with him, while Roseman-Gannon and Pate will be joined by Josie Talbot.
The women's race will feature the last five national champions, including this year's time trial winner Brodie Chapman (2023), Nicole Frain ('22) and Sarah Roy ('21).
Three-time champion Amanda Spratt most recently won in 2020.
Plapp's teammate Luke Durbridge (2013) is the only other previous winner among the men.
While the women's elite race will also feature the under-23 category - Keira Will was runner-up to Pate in the criterium and is one to watch.
Making his debut in the under-23 road race on Saturday, Victorian Julian Baudry soloed to victory.
He took out the 136km race by 51 seconds, with defending champion and fellow Victorian Fergus Browning outsprinting South Australian Jack Clark for silver.
