NICK North cruised to victory in the men’s A grade long course race at the opening round of the King Cain Wallabies race series on Sunday.
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An in-form North was never headed in the Bathurst race as a very strong bike leg opened a considerable margin between the leader and Josh Stapley, who finished in second.
The 500-metre swim, 16.5-kilometre bike leg and five-kilometre run leg was completed by North in 49 minutes and 48 seconds with Stapley 4:29 behind. Graham Wheeler came home in third.
It was a race that North almost never took on as he continues his training towards longer events, but he made good use of the hit-out on the course.
He put aside advice to only take on a portion of the course, and he believes his decision will pay dividends in the future.
“The coach didn’t really want me to do it, just wanted me to do the bike ride. I took the swim fairly easy but pushed myself really hard on the bike and wanted to see where I was at for the first lap of the run,” he said. “That felt really good so I backed it off on the second 2.5km of the run and kind of cruised to the finish. I was feeling really good.
“The swim was more rolling the arms over but the bike was the big aim, trying to push along in a big gear and trying to really hurt myself.”
North is no stranger to competing over much longer distances than the 22km in total provided by the new Wallabies course.
Even so, he believes it was a valuable hit-out that still provides a big challenge.
“I’ve been training really hard and really consistently for about two months now and dropping the weight, feeling strong. I’m training more for halves [marathons] at the moment so something short like this is really hard, really intense,” he said.
“It’s just good fun to support the local club and get out there. I just do it as training really ... I’d like to come out more and support the local club, but with my training and races it’s hard to fit in but I’d like to do as many as I can. I’d like to do the inter clubs and get enough points there.”
North now turns his sights towards not only the Nepean triathlon this weekend but beyond.
“Nepean’s more of a tester to see where I’m at. The big race I’m getting ready for is the Forster challenge, the half-ironman, that’s my first elite race – I’ll be in the pro ranks for that. That’s the big goal this year and hopefully I can get into the top 10 which would be brilliant,” he said.
