“This may sound crazy, but I really want to be pushed. I want to have to be racing right up until the end, and have to work so hard for the win,” said Allan.

“I’d love to have to bury myself on that last ride.”

“I think, for a lot of endurance athletes, that’s the sort of thing that motivates them.”

But with both 2019 runner up Sam Manson and 3rd place getter Alex Hunt choosing to compete in the team's event this year, many had wondered where his competition might come from. He need not have worried, with three-time race winner Sam Clark, who sat out the 2019 event, heeding the call and choosing to return and take Allan on.

Before knowing that Clarke had entered Allan spoke of the high regard, he held Clark in, who has been a teammate in recent times while racing in China.

“I would have to have a really good day and take myself mentally into a dark place to beat him and that gets me excited just saying that!”

In 2017 Clark famously reeled in fellow three-time winner Braden Currie who had a near ten-minute advantage on the Waimakirir river, to go on and win the race in 11 hours two minutes and 43 seconds, nearly eight minutes ahead of Currie.

 ‘’It’s a massive commitment signing up to the Coast to Coast, both financially and physically, but it’s a race I want to and love to win. So, I’m coming back,’’ said Clark.

“Having Dougal there will be a great test and one I’m really looking forward to.”

Having produced one of the strongest bike rides on the grueling and mind-numbing final ride down South Eyre road in recent memory Clark has shown he has the goods to foot it with the best cyclists out there, although he felt his strengths lay back in the mountain run, ‘If you’re out of sight you’re out of mind and that can be hard mentally for competitors if they know someone’s up ahead of them, so hopefully I can get across the river and produce a bit of a lead on the others.”

Race Director Glen Currie says the return of Clark and the potential battle between the two has the makings of one of the best spectacles in the modern era of the race. “We’ve had some close races in the past, but this is shaping up as the type of race everyone has been waiting for and depending on the conditions it could potentially be the one, we see break the 11-hour mark again.”

"Sometimes the longest day can be a tricky race for a spectator given the remoteness of both the Mountain Run through Goat Pass and in the Waimikiriri Gorge, but I’d say from the Gorge Bridge, anywhere along South Eyre road and especially at New Brighton will be an outstanding place to be a spectator this year.”

Six minutes separated 2015 winner Braden Currie and Sam Clark who finished in second, while and 8-minute spread divided the pair two years later with Clark getting the best of Currie who had sat out the year earlier.   

Ryan Kiesnowski has done the opposite to Hunt and Manson and returned to the men’s elite division having won the men’s two-day team event last year while Rhys John and Hamish Elliott will no doubt challenge for a podium finish. Bay of Plenty Dairy Farmer Bobby Dean also returns in 2020 having finished 7th in 2019. 

Men’s Elite seeding 2020

#1 Dougal Allan

#2 Sam Clark

#3 Ryan Kiesanowski

#4 Hamish Elliott

#5 Rhy John

#6 Bobby Dean

#7 Olivier Thompson

#8 Scott McDonald

#9 Daniel Barry

#10 Paul Gow