ON Sunday he found himself chasing Nick North in round two of the Central West Inter Club Triathlon Series, but Jack Bilton is now in pursuit of something bigger.
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The Orange talent is hoping to earn an International Triathlon Union world ranking.
It is a quest which will take him to Thailand next month for a Continental Cup race.
"I've got another week, a solid block of training, then recovery time before I go to Thailand. So this was a good hit out before I do that," Bilton said after placing second to North in the inter club race.
"That's an elite men's event, so anyone across the world can go in it. That's going to be a really tough race, I'm trying to get a world ranking at the moment, but these little events make it so much better because you can push yourself to the absolute limits."
Pushing to the limits is something Bilton found himself doing across the 2.5 kilometre run, 200 metres swim, 16km cycle, 200m swim, 2.5km run course in Bathurst.
He clocked the fastest split for the opening run leg - eight minutes, 29 seconds - but fellow Orange hopeful Tom Tudor, Mudgee's Campbell Wall, plus Bathurst talents North and Jack Reen were close behind.
North took the lead out of the pool, but he Bilton and Tudor headed out of transition in a pack.
It was on the cycle leg which followed that the race was decided. Familiar with the course - one he has blitzed during Bathurst Wallabies club races already this season - North knew when to attack.
North's split of 23:30 was a minute quicker than Bilton's and while the Orange talent did cut that gap, 13 seconds were between them at the finish.
"I was trying to get him there in the end, but he got away from me on the bike just a bit too far. I knew I had a bit of work to do, so I just pushed as hard as I could in that last run. I closed the gap, but he was too strong, he was way too strong," he said.
"There's a little rise coming out of the first bit of the bike and he got me there, my legs were just absolutely gone. I'd had a huge week of training, a huge block, and it was just the fatigue catching up.
"Tom Tudor and myself were pushing hard on the bike and I knew I just had to go because Northy had a minute on us going into the run. I just had to go for it and try.
"But I was happy with the race, he got away and I managed to close it a bit on that last run."
