On Sunday Simons was the first female to cross the line in the Maitland Triathlon long course event, adding another impressive achievement to her record in the sport she first fell in love with in 2018.

"It is my first overall outright female win, I've won my age group a few times, but this is my first big overall win, so that was exciting," Simons said.

For months Simons has been churning out the kilometres - in October her Strava count exceeded 1,000 - and producing some impressive numbers in training, so she was well prepared for the Maitland event.

When flooding forced an alteration to the course - it ended up being 6km run, 60km cycle, 12km run format - it further played to Simons' strengths.

She clocked an overall time of 3:00.34 - five minutes and one second faster than her closest female rival.

The way the course was set up allowed Simons to pace herself well, being second after the first run with a 25:32 split then capitalising on her strong cycling background as she took the lead. Simons covered the 60km on the bike in 1:40.44.

"Luckily the women did start together with the run, so we could see where everyone was, in a swim it's a bit harder because you can really see who is who," she said.

"So I could see who was who, who was in front, who were the contenders and once I went into the bike leg I knew there was only one girl in front of me and once I caught her I knew 'Yep, I'm in the lead now'.

"Once I got into the second run, because it was a two kay run loop we passed each other quite a lot, so I could keep tabs on who was gaining or if I was gaining. It was quite a nice feeling going into the last lap that I could just hang in there and I've got this."

Simons admitted the latter stages of the final leg was tough, but she stayed strong with a split of 51:41.

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"The legs were feeling it on the last couple of laps for sure. It was a flat run course on a bit of a u-shape and on one of the bits there was a very slight uprise and on each lap that slight uprise seemed to get steeper and steeper and also the day was getting hotter and hotter as well," she said.

Simons was not the only Bathurst triathlete to do well at Maitland. Richard Hobson - who Simons said she was "not really racing but also secretly racing" - placed third in the men's 50-54 years division in 3:00.03.

"He's been a major player in helping me. I have a lot of respect for him and I really, really value his opinion and to even get anywhere close to him is a pretty big thing for me," Simons said of Hobson.

Impressively Jack Reen won his 15-19 years category and placed fifth outright in 2:37.51.

"I chatted with him after the race and he was really pleased with how he'd raced. A lot of the boys went off quite fast at the start and he played it really smart and didn't try and go out with them, but ended up catching them at the end of the first run," Simons said.

"He was really happy with his result overall and so he should be because it was a really strong field.

"Learning when to go is a really big thing, I'm learning that too, and I think both of us as we race more we will learn a little bit more how to race and how to play to our strengths."

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