Cam Wurf was back in the top 10 at the IRONMAN World Championship last year and changed circumstances in 2025 suggest he can animate things in Nice on Sunday.
2025 has been a different year for the Aussie as he has stepped back from his professional cycling duties to focus on triathlon, allowing him to work on areas where he has struggled in the past.
The technical and testing nature of the bike course on the French Riviera should play right into his hands and even though that hasn’t been the case in the past, he’s hoping that an improved swim can out him right in the mix.
Swim focus
He said: “I’ve had more time to do the small things and I think I showed that early in the year with the bike, we spent a lot of time in the wind tunnel and so forth.
“To be honest, that was probably more aimed at Kona next year. Looking at things like that, it’s a long process, finding new ways to go faster,” he added. “That was sort of an investment for next year, on this course that’s not so important with the demands of the course being so much climbing and descending and obviously a more technical type course.
“I’ve been working on my swimming as well, I spent a lot of time in winter just swimming and focusing on that. It’s been an interesting first part of the year with a lot of neglect of other areas to improve on specific areas. I feel like I was quite deficient early on and then the summer has been all about trying to pile it all together.
“I’ve had a good few months training at home and here at my home away from home in Europe with a great group of guys, I had the Aussie team out there for a while, with Matt Hauser and crew which was great.”
Putting himself in the race
That 180km bike course packed with climbs and descents should favour Wurf given his cycling prowess.
But as he explained: “It suits me but I’ve never done well here and I don’t know why that is. I seem to do well on courses that people would think don’t suit me, so I don’t really have an answer for this course, except, this time I feel I can swim better, put myself in the race.
“I think I’ve always swum poorly here, it’s always been a non-wetsuit swim, and I’ve always struggled in that regard. So, you’re using the hard part of the course just to get yourself back in the race and then find it difficult to do too much after that.
“So that’s the plan this year to try to get off to a better start and put myself in the race and, use the hard part of the course to actually try to make a difference.”
Wurf was referenced by big-race favourite Kristian Blummenfelt in Friday’s press conference as someone he could be looking to work with on the bike leg.
And Wurf added: “I think I showed in Kona last year [when he was seventh] that if the race is tough and the conditions are hard and there’s some fatigue in the legs of people I can really run with some of the best guys in the sport. I’ve got to put myself in the race, I’ve got to put the race on my terms.”
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