Murray set for world’s ‘toughest’ triathlon MyZA

Richard Murray. Photo: Janos Schmidt / ICU

South African triathlete Richard Murray is aiming to impress at Saturday’s ITU World Triathlon Series race in Kitzbühel, Austria.

The race is often labelled as the “toughest in the world”.

According to the ITU’s official website it’s set to be one of the most unique races in the history of the World Series.

Instead of the usual Olympic distance format of a 1.5km swim, 40km bike and 10km run, this year’s race in the small Austrian alpine town has been designed around the famous Kitzbühel Horn.

It starts with a 750m swim and is followed by a 11.55km cycle.

The bike includes 867m of climbing, with a gradient of between 17 and 22 percent in the final 1km.

Then the final 2.55km run awaits. It features 136m of elevation to the finish at Alpine House.

Last year Murray fell ill before the race. This time around he is ready to make some new memories.

“I have been at a training camp in Banyoles in Spain. Even though I had food poisoning, I still managed to get some good miles in my legs.

“The racing should be exciting and it will be interesting to see how everyone paces the climb. I’m planning on around 400 watts average.

“Hopefully it will be enough as the lighter guys will have an advantage over me on the climb I reckon.”

Kitzbühel will be significant as it will be the first time this season that the 2012 Olympic podium finishers will be in the same field.

While Jonathan Brownlee, Alistair Brownlee and Javier Gomez have so far won each of the four titles on offer between them this year, it will be the first time that the trio will line up in the same race.

Murray finished second in San Diego behind Alistair Brownlee and followed that up with fifth in Yokohama and sixth in Madrid.