Orange Piranhas will set sail for Bathurst's Australia Day Inter-club event

In what's always a huge day on the triathlon calendar, the region's leading club will head West to tackle Tuesday's race day and club representative Phil Tudor is confident that the contingent can make an impression.

"We're going to go over there and represent ourselves as well as we can," Tudor said.

"This is always one of the bigger events on the calendar and it really kicks off the start of of the season for us.

"We've got three events in-a-row because we've got a club race on the 31^st, then our inter-club meeting on the 7^th."

And while Tudor hopes a healthy amount of Orange athletes will make the trip, he knows the event will still be somewhat hampered by COVID-19.

"This is just another sport that hasn't gotten a roll on because of COVID," he said.

"No one's gone ballistic with it... all of our races will be run COVIDsafe. I'm hoping a few turn up but numbers will still be limited and the fields are set to be limited as well.

"There won't be any BBQs or presentations. We will just be racing then leaving."

It seems a sad swansong for club icons Tom Tudor and Rory Thornhill as the duo will set sail for university in early February and miss out on the Orange inter-club event.

"It's a bit of a last hoorah for them, I suppose," he said.

"They've both gotten into the elite athletes programs down there.

"We'll lose a bit of our domination in the under 19s so there's a big hole to fill, there. I've got no doubt there's a few guys around the region who will be happy to see them nick off anyway."

While the loss of the leading duo is admittedly costly, Tudor made a mention of some of the strengths the club still has, including Jessie, Mollie and Abbie Dean.

"I don't know what they're up to with their training and their racing but their dominance has stretched a long time," he said.

As for the older racers, still still a stack who can make inroads on Tuesday.

"Kim Dale, Julie Middleton and Cas Ingham... those guys will still go over and pick up points," he said.

"This event always has a really good vibe. A lot of the athletes go down and wear their Australian gear."

Looking towards the future, Tudor is exciting for what the future holds as Gosling Creek and says the water is as good as it's been in recent times, thanks to the rain.

"It's nice and full there," he said.

"It's in really good nick at the moment and that's good timing because it's about to get really busy for our club." Bathurst's inter-club tilt will kick-off Tuesday morning.