From WorldTour to Wales, Wurf’s evolution continues in Kona
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Updated 13/10/2017 at 23:42 GMT
Former world rowing champion-turned-professional cyclist Cameron Wurf has his wheels firmly set in the sport of triathlon — at least for now …
From WorldTour to Wales, Wurf’s evolution continues in Kona
Image credit: Eurosport
Cameron Wurf has never been one to shy away from a challenge and come Saturday, the recently crowned Ironman Wales champion will be facing just that when he starts the Ironman World Championships in Kona.
Having only spent the past 18 months or more competing in the sport of swim/bike/run, one could easily overlook the 34-year-old Tasmanian’s chances for a top 10 result on the Big Island of Hawaii, but nothing could be further from the truth.
After years spent rowing in the men’s lightweight double scull, the 2004 Olympian and former under-23 world champion made his first major transition in sport when he switched to professional cycling immediately after stowing the oars in 2007. He quickly climbed to cycling’s highest level in 2009 when he signed with UCI WorldTour team Fuji-Servetto before eventually ending up with Cannondale until 2014.
With a base built on years of elite-level endurance competition, Wurf has now set his sights on the sport of triathlon and based on his past two performances, which includes a second-place finish at Ironman Sweden and an overall win in Wales, this could spell trouble for the pro men’s field.
If you weren't there on Sunday, this was the moment @cameronwurf won his first ever IRONMAN title at #IMWales. pic.twitter.com/tzPjKGacdK — Ironman Wales (@IRONMAN_Wales) September 12, 2017
Wurf first took up triathlon during 2015 after he had made an unexpected decision to step aside from pro cycling to access his options.
“After seven years of racing bikes, I wasn’t reaching my potential and felt like I should probably go do something constructive with my life,” Wurf told Eurosport. “Cannondale didn’t want me to quit and they offered me a sabbatical year and still paid me as a rider. They let me do sort of what I wanted, so I voluntarily entered a couple of triathlons and found all of the sudden I wanted to win them.”
Known for pushing himself to the limits during training, Wurf engaged in an extreme schedule and totally engrossed himself in the sport. Wurf, who is four-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome’s training partner and frequent riding companion of fellow Aussies Richie Porte (BMC Racing) and Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb), says he logs 35-40 hours a week combined in water and on the road.
That routine and his naïveté nearly cost him early on as he found himself breaking down physically under the stress of pounding the pavement.
“After dipping my toe in the water, I fully committed to it last year,” he explained. “I was a bit too enthusiastic and ran and ran and ran to the point where I tore my calf and then couldn’t run for about six months.
“I thought about really giving it all up, and then at the start of this year I got a call from [Team Sky coach] Tim Kerrison out of the blue to come and train with ‘Froomey’ on the Gold Coast so I did.
Tim asked me what I was up to and I told him I was thinking about triathlon, but I was second-guessing it. However, he thought it was one of the best things I could do and offered to help. It turns out it’s what we’ve been doing, so I’ve spent the year trying to qualify for Kona.
Wurf qualified for the world championships after a second-place finish in Sweden, but it wasn’t until his stellar win in Wales that he burst onto the radar with a blistering bike ride in cold, wet, windy conditions. Wurf bested nearest pro men’s rival Philip Graves of Great Britian by 2 minutes 30 seconds after finishing the 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42.2km run in a time of 9 hours 7 minutes 3 seconds.
“After Sweden and I qualified for Kona, I kind of expected to focus on Kona and maybe going to a camp, but Tim felt the racing was good for me as I was finally starting to learn. He thought it was important to go to a race where I could put into practice all the things I’ve learned over the four Ironman races I’d done this year.”
The 2017 Australian top 10 national road race finisher had been tipped off by Welsh rider and Froome teammate Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) that Wales would be brutal — both the course and the weather conditions — so he planned accordingly.
“Geraint said expect the worse and then it would probably be twice as bad as that,” said Wurf. “That morning it was overcast and drizzly and you could tell it was going to rain.
“I asked some of the other guys about rain gear and they and said I would be fine without any and would warm up on the bike, but I’ve raced on the WorldTour and you don’t really warm up when it’s 14 or 15 degrees Celsius (57 or 59 Fahrenheit) and wet — it’s pretty chilly.
“I actually put an extra jersey on when I came into transition even though I lost a bit of time and also had my raincoat in my pocket during the bike leg, so I was really prepared,” he explained further. “When I went past them all none of them had anything and I knew then they were done. Those guys had no idea how horrible they were going to feel in five hours time, so the colder it got, the more rain that fell and more miserable it became, the happier I felt.”
#IMWales RACE UPDATE: @cameronwurf still leads after 160km. 6 minutes ahead of @PhilipEGraves and Christian Kramer. pic.twitter.com/FmAmrdqaE6 — Ironman Wales (@IRONMAN_Wales) September 10, 2017
Wurf whittled his marathon time down to three hours even (3:00:37) in Sweden, but turned in a 3:11:00 in Wales simply due to the fact that he didn’t need to run any faster thanks specifically to an insurmountable bike lead.
“I rationalized in my brain it was a hard course, but it was going to be way harder for everyone else,” explained Wurf, who recorded the only sub five-hour bike leg (4:57:50). “I could probably get a lead quite comfortably and then I would have plenty of energy to run as hard as I needed to and that’s exactly how it panned out.”
With a top 10 at Ironman Cairns (seventh), a second in Sweden and a win in Wales, Wurf’s confidence is brimming on the eve of the world championships.
“I had a really good swim in Wales, which was another thing that set me up for the victory,” he explained. “I actually led the first 300-400m and sort of made the guys come to me. I’ve always been a follower looking for the fast feet. In Wales I decided to bugger it and try to be a bit proactive and dictate the pace myself.
“I did and came out with Harry Wiltshire (GBR), who was first out of the water at Kona last year, so I think I made an improvement there, but it was with a wetsuit and Kona is no wetsuit. So I need to keep working on my swim.
“I know I have the bike legs and I know my power is significantly higher than what they can do.”
According to Wurf, who has yet to compete in his full race trim (gear) and readily admits to this year being a litmus test of sorts, the swim will be the key in present and future Kona success.
“I’ve done three hours comfortably on the run and I know now I can hold that pace for a long period, and if I need to I can bring it up,” claims Wurf. “But if I can have a great swim that’s going to set me up for the entire day.
“I’ll be up on the front on the bike really quickly and then will be able to decide how I’m going to play it — do I hit them hard or whatever?
“If I come further back with [Sebastian Kienle], I’ll have to figure out how to race a different race,” he continued. “If I can really nail the swim, who knows what will happen? I’ve seen when they have to ride hard they don’t run as fast, so if I do have a strong bike leg and they have to react, who knows how that will affect their run … who knows?”
He's done it! @cameronwurf is our #IMWales Champion! pic.twitter.com/rs5scYn9oE — Ironman Wales (@IRONMAN_Wales) September 10, 2017
As far as what the future holds, the jury is still out. Wurf has not fully counted out a return to cycling, nor has the frequent resident of Big Bear, CA, ruled out a possible attempt at cross-country skiing or even a round or two in the boxing ring. However, labels are not something that interests Wurf.
For him, it’s all about the journey.
“To be honest I never wanted to do anything specific,” he admitted. “I wanted to be an athlete, just a professional athlete. I love team sports and being part of team, but there’s something about me where I always wanted to do something a bit different from everyone else and at the moment I’m doing triathlon. I am currently registered as a professional triathlete, but to be honest I don’t want that to be it.
“Who knows, maybe I’ll be back in the peloton or maybe something else,” Wurf concluded. “But either way, I’ll do it all on my terms and hopefully enjoy every minute of it all along the way.”
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