World Tour professional rider Greg Henderson will head a New Zealand team in the annual Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic near Melbourne in the New Year.

Henderson, who rides for Lotto Belisol team based in Europe, will lead a group of mostly endurance track riders who will use the four-day tour as foundation for next month's all-important Skoda Elite National Track Championships in Cambridge to press their claims for selection for February's UCI World Championships.

Henderson, who lives in Melbourne, will be joined by double Olympic medallists Aaron Gate and Marc Ryan, their fellow Cycling New Zealand track teammates Cameron Karwowski and Pieter Bulling, along with Canterbury's Alex Frame, who rides for the development team of World Pro Tour's Giant-Shimano.

They will also be joined by Cycling New Zealand elite women's endurance track riders Racquel Sheath and Georgia Williams.

Gate, Ryan and Frame, along with Williams, will also compete in the Calder Stewart elite road nationals in Christchurch early next month.

The Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic, in its 25th year, is better known formerly as the Bay Crits and comprises a series of criterium races of 45 minutes duration for elite women and 60 minutes for elite men.

Geelong's eastern beach is the venue for races on Friday and Saturday, January 2 and 3, before the action moves to the historic coastal town of Portarlington on the Bellarine Peninsula for stage three with the final stage at Williamstown, near the Melbourne CBD on Monday, January 4.