Australia's husband and wife mountain bike team Daniel and Rebecca McConnell say they are ready to attack a challenging course in Izu as they chase the nation's first Olympic medal in the discipline.
The cross-country course is 4.1km long with elevation of 150m which the men will tackle on Monday and women on Tuesday.
"It's probably one of the most difficult mountain bike courses we've seen," Rebecca said.
"At this level everybody is very technically savvy and capable, and the weather will play a huge part whether it's raining or dry, but everyone is here and ready to take on whatever will be."
Rebecca, 29, has won consecutive bronze medals at the past two world championships but isn't putting any pressure on herself at the Games.
"You'd have to be a pretty special character to be feeling confident of being on the podium at an Olympics," she said.
"But I've had a good season so far and the last two world championships have gone amazingly, so I'm not putting any pressure or expectations on myself for a result, I just want to come away happy with my race."
Husband Daniel is also Rebecca's coach which she admits has its challenges, but says the good out-weighs the bad.
"Sometimes we have our moments as far as coaching goes but it's an absolute privilege to be here with my husband," Rebecca said.
"It's my third Olympics and he's been at all three of those with me, and to go training on the course together is a huge help for me because of the challenges (it presents)."
Daniel, 35, will become the first Australian to make three Olympic teams in mountain biking this week.
"The first Games is always super special and to be here in my fourth I don't think that feeling has changed at all," Daniel said.
"It has been a very different year-and-a-half for everyone in life I guess, but when the Games got postponed last year it was a bit of a setback.
"I was always hopeful they would go ahead this year and here we are.
"Everyone has had their challenges, for us it wasn't always easy to get out of the country to go to the selection races but we had some good training at home which maybe has been a good thing.
"For sure I'd like to put myself in the top 10 and once you get into that point in the race then a lot can happen, so that's a pretty good starting point.
"But it's a super challenging course and going to be quite fast and hard to stay on the wheel in the technical sections."
Reece Homfray
