Ironman 70.3 Tasmania: Cameron Wurf’s preparation a homecoming
Cameron Wurf has returned to Tasmania for the first time in four years and his preparation for the Ironman Tasmania event has him feeling like a kid again. Go inside his preparations.
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Cameron Wurf is home and he’s ready to take it up to the world’s best Ironman athletes.
The 40-year-old will be one of the local headline acts in this weekend’s Ironman 70.3 Tasmania race after returning home for the first time in four years.
Wurf has been back for about six weeks, getting accustomed to the track, where he will take on some of the world’s best athletes.
“Like everyone at the start of the year it’s a mix of excitement to get the season underway and nerves and apprehension about the unknown of where your form is at but it’s the same for everyone,” he said.
“I think I’ve demonstrated over the last number of years on the Ironman circuit that every time I line up in a race, I do everything I can to first and foremost get into the lead and then try and stay there, my intention for Sunday will be no different.
“I’ve been home for six weeks and it’s been four years since I’d been here with the Covid restrictions, having a child and commitments with the team has meant it wasn’t possible, so it’s been fantastic to be back with everyone.
“There’s a really great youth development program in triathlon and swimming particularly going on down here, and athletics, so I’ve actually been training with a lot of the TIS groups, every session is full gas with 16-year-olds so it just reminds me of being back in the rowing days, morning and afternoon, absolutely flat out.
“I’ve certainly had to increase my mid-afternoon nap quota back to how it used to be.”
Wurf said being back in his home state had allowed him to relive some of his happiest memories.
“I’m really excited to get out there on Sunday and have a good race, it felt like a Tassie summer of training and racing like it was 20 years ago, we have the local triathlons, the local aquathlons, we had a swimming race the other day, I’m really excited to be here and race on roads I ride on every single day,” he said.
“The reason I ride on those roads, I live on the eastern shore and when I ride over to Mount Wellington almost everyday when I’m training I go via the Bowen Bridge and through Lutana and those steep walls and I do that because they are hard and they are steep and they’re a great warm up before you get to Mount Wellington.
“I know every little inch of the road so I’ll do everything that I can to try and turn that into an advantage for myself and if the wind blows it can also add another element to it to make it extremely challenging but I don’t think it would matter where you put the bike course in Tasmania, it’s probably going to be the toughest bike course in Oceania. “You don’t get many free kicks on the roads here, they are pretty tough to pedal on and the wind can be brutal, the little rollers are quite deceptively steep seemingly everywhere so I’m really looking forward to that part of it.
“I think it will make for a really exciting race and a really fair race and give everyone an opportunity to try and play their cards.”
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