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Wurf helps teammate to second at Great Ocean Road Race, then runs 21 km

In his first appearance for World Tour Team Ineos, Cameron Wurf helped his teammate Pavel Sivakov to second, then ran 21 km back to the team hotel.

We were wondering when we’d see the first World Tour brick workout and it didn’t take long. After helping his teammate to second at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, Cameron Wurf finished the day with a half-marathon run back to the team hotel.

Team Ineos members Cam Wurf and Ian Stannard push the pace at the front of the peloton at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. Photo: www.teamineos.com

We reported last week that Cameron Wurf would be joining Team Ineos, and it hasn’t taken the Australian long to make a difference with the squad. After working hard to keep the pace high throughout the race, Ineos team member Pavel Sivakov ended up taking second.

“It was super hard as expected,” Wurf said after the race. “As a team we didn’t have a sprinter, so the plan was to make it as hard as possible. And that meant making it hard from the start. For my first race back it would have been lovely to have maybe 50-60km to ease your way in, but I was the first person to do a pull. That was about 5km into the race and I was on the limit it from then on. But it’s great – when you’ve got a team like this it’s easy to motivate yourself to do whatever you can. You can tell that Pavel and Dylan particularly were super strong. If we could make it hard all day then they had a chance of doing well – and they showed it at the end. It was great.”

Despite having been out of the pro peloton for a few years as he’s pursued his triathlon career, Wurf said he felt quite comfortable riding with some of the world’s top riders.

“I felt pretty comfortable out there in the peloton. I didn’t know if everyone knew it was me and were giving me a bit more space! A lot of guys said hello and welcome back which was really nice. It was a great way to start. It was tough but I’m glad I did it now, as early as possible. Now I know what to expect and to improve for next time.”

After the race Wurf managed to get a run done – and it sounds like Wurf’s coach wasn’t allowing for any sort of break:

“I’ll run back to the hotel now. Perfectly, they’ve positioned the finish line a half marathon distance away, which is (coach) Tim Kerrison’s minimum requirement (laughs).”

Cameron Wurf on the run at the 2019 Ironman World Championship where he finished fifth. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

Triathlon schedule

Just before he hit the start line on the weekend, we reached out to Wurf for some feedback on how the move to work with Ineos might affect his training and racing.

“Basically my training won’t change at all,” he said. “I’ll let the racing provide a bit if stimulus boost to my cycling.”

“I might cut back on the running intensity leading into a road race, but certainly not the volume,” he continued obviously swimming will remain the focus, and I’ll continue to increase the load there as planned.”

In terms of racing, we might actually get to see Wurf race here in Canada this summer.

“Race wise, I’ll do the Collins cup in late May, then Roth and perhaps something before Kona – Canada or a half. That’s  a bit up in the air.”

Cameron Wurf gets ready to pass two-time Olympic gold medalist Alistair Brownlee at the 2019 Ironman World Championship. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon