PETA Cutler laughed that that her transitions were slow enough she might as well have had a cup of tea, but her swim, run and cycle legs in the Bathurst Wallabies Triathlon Club's long course event were more akin to an expresso.
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Of the seven female competitors who tackled the season-opening long course race, Cutler clocked the fastest splits for the 500 metre swim and five kilometre run, while only eventual runner-up Hollee Simons went quicker in the 16km cycle.
While Cutler was not overly pleased she spent a 94 seconds through her two transitions which saw Simons on her heels as they headed out for the run, she still won comfortably.
"She [Hollee] wasn't far back at all after the bike. Once again I'm really slow in transition, take my time, have a cup of tea then I get on my bike and go and it was the same when I come in from the bike. I couldn't put my shoes on, took my time to put my hat on, then I got going," Cutler said.
"She was right on me, but it was a good run. I found it hard to get right on top of my breathing today, but it was good."
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Cutler held an 11 seconds lead over Simons after the swim thanks to her 7:56 split and though that closed up after the cycle, she powered through the run in 21:11.
It saw Culter (55:43) take the win ahead of Simons (58:32) and Morgan Watts (1:03.13) in a good sign ahead of the Western Sydney 70.3 Ironman.
"I've got Western Sydney in two weeks, so I just wanted to do this race to sharpen things up and have a really good crack there in two weeks," she said.