The outcome of the race, the fifth of seven on this year’s tour, could be crucial as athletes look to accumulate points and move up the overall standings.

On the women’s side, Italy’s Arianna Bridi is currently ranked number one with 70 points.

She won last year’s event at Lac Mégantic, which plays host to the only point-to-point race on the tour.

Behind Bridi is team-mate Rachele Bruni with 51 points.

The 2015 champion skipped last year’s race to focus on the 10km event at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, where she earned a silver medal.

Bruni finished an uncharacteristic ninth at the most recent World Cup race in Lac Saint-Jean last month. 

"I re-set my brain from Lac St-Jean because that race was very bad,"Bruni, trying to win her third consecutive overall World Cup title, said.

Among the three women who could overtake Bruni for second spot if they win tomorrow is Brazil’s Ana Marcela Cunha.

Cunha placed third in Lac St-Jean despite swimming all four events - and capturing three medals - at the FINA World Championships in Hungary’s capital Budapest just one week earlier.

Her compatriot Viviane Jungblut and Ecuador’s Samantha Arevalo can also leapfrog Bruni. 

Jungblut only recently switched from pool swimming to open water and has already made the World Cup podium twice in her rookie year.

Arevalo, meanwhile, trains with the Italians and earned the silver medal in the 10km at the FINA World Championships.

Italy's Federico Vanelli leads the men’s standings with 56 points.

This is despite suffering a tough loss in Lac St-Jean to his team-mate Simone Ruffini, who is ranked second with 53 points, after mis-judging the finish.  

Another exciting prospect is 20-year-old Hungarian Kristóf Rasovszky, winner of the third race of the series in Portuguese city Setúbal in June.

He currently ranks seventh overall in the World Cup.