Racing will begin tomorrow at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre, which was built to stage competition at the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games.

Canada will hope to impress in front of a home crowd, with Rio 2016 Olympians Hugo Barrette, Allison Beveridge, Jasmin Duehring and Kirsti Lay part of their squad.

"It's a real privilege for us to play host to our international competitors," said Kris Westwood, Cycling Canada high performance director.

“We're looking forward to seeing how our athletes stack up against the best in the world while enjoying home-field advantage - we definitely hope to make multiple trips to the podium.

“World Cups can be unpredictable because teams often use them to experiment with new tactics and unfamiliar combinations of riders, so you never know what to expect.

“One thing's for sure: it's going to be a great show and Canada will be in the thick of the action."

Kristina Vogel is expected to be one of the international stars on show in Canada, with the German having gone unbeaten in the team sprint, sprint and keirin so far this season.

The London 2012 and Rio 2016 gold medallist will be one of several Olympic medallist to be competing at the event.

Katie Archibald, an Olympic team pursuit champion, will compete in a smaller British team at the three-day event.

She will start among the favourites in the women’s madison.

Men’s and women’s points races will provide the only gold medals tomorrow, with men’s team sprint, keirin, madison, women’s sprint and omnium events taking place the following day.

Women’s team sprint, madison and keirin competitions will conclude on Sunday (December 30, with men’s team pursuit, sprint and omnium events also finishing.