LAST WORD
“I’D PREFER TO BREAK
THE RUN RECORD”
Kona bike split record holder Cam Wurf tells us why it feels so good to run away
with a win, and dishes the dirt on his showdown with Andy Starykowicz.
I
lot of pre-race smack talk on social media
last year. I’ve always been very good at
sledging – you don’t survive in Australian
sport if you’re not, and you also don’t
survive if you can’t back it up. This year
Andy needs to not bring a sword to a gun
fight like he did last year.
On the 2018 Kona bike it was great to
have Andy with me to share the pain on
the first section out to Hawi. But once it
For Kona 2019, I’m training to
outrun my competitors if need
be. I felt powerless in the last two
years to do anything about being
smashed on the run. It’s a horrible
position to find yourself in in one of
the biggest races on the planet. I
don’t care where they are in relation
to me when we start the run, I’ll be
firmly focused on trying to outrun
everyone in the field.
It would be stupid to back off on
the bike as that’s my strength. My
focus has always been to continue
to improve on the bike and to work
hard on running well off that. My
running coach Brett Kirby from Nike
believes I have a unique physiology in this
sport thanks to my rowing and cycling
background. He feels that more running
should actually make me much stronger
at an IRONMAN-type bike effort. I’m sure
there is probably a top-end power penalty,
but fortunately I’m not trying to win Le
Tour de France, so I don’t notice. Relative
to top cyclists, none of us produce much
power in an IRONMAN bike.
Andy Starykowicz is a character and I
think he’s great for the sport. We traded a
146
was time to try win the Championship, I
knew that waiting for him wasn’t going
to give me the advantage I needed, so I
had to push on. I know that if I was in his
position and had to simply watch me ride
away, it would’ve felt rather humiliating.
I’m sure he’ll be back more motivated
than ever, which is how it should be.
I ran into Andy after the race when
we collected our bikes and was a little
disappointed with his attitude to be
honest. He had every excuse under the
sun as to why he wasn’t faster than me on
the bike. Firstly, though, who cares who’s
fastest on the bike – aren’t we there to
win the race? Anyways, I’d like to think if I
was in that position I’d just acknowledge
that someone was better than me. People
forget it’s the first time we actually raced
against each other and there is a reason
I have the bike course record in both
Kona and Roth. He’s done both races on
multiple occasions and obviously gone as
fast as he can every time, yet I’ve got the
record. I’d be shocked if anyone
expected the outcome to be any
different than it was to be honest.
I really hope it makes him better
as we all need a kick in the bum
sometimes to make us want to
improve.
I wouldn’t call my Kona ride a
monster ride, in fact I stupidly
rode a lot easier than usual, firstly
waiting for Andrew and then in the
later stages saving energy for the
run. I got off the bike feeling really
fresh and if you go back and look
at the footage you’ll see I looked
a hell of a lot fresher than all my
rivals when we hit T2, Patrick
Lange included. A lot of things
went wrong from there, which was
a combination of a fragile mental
application to my running and the
simple fact that these guys are
better than me. They are far better
conditioned to ride their relative hardness
in comparison to mine and run really well
on tired legs. Halfway through the run I
knew exactly where I was weak and I’ve
been working hard on improving in those
areas ever since.
A sub-4 hour bike is a possibility at Kona
and 2019 could be the year we see it. I’d
prefer to break the run course record and
set a new overall race record than break
four hours on the bike though. However,
perhaps the dynamics will be such that
they will go hand in hand… Who knows?
t was an amazing feeling to
win the Cannes International
Triathlon in April and break
overall course records. That’s what I
dreamed of when I entered the sport.
Winning is always a complete surprise
to me as I’ve done very little of it during
my sporting career at the international
level. The biggest surprise was how I won
by going toe-to-toe with Tim Don and
then running away from him. On paper
you’d obviously have given me zero
chance of being able to do that last
season, so it was very gratifying
for me to see the reward for the
1 600km of running I’ve endured in
the first four months of the season.