In a time of 5 hours, 5 minutes and 35 seconds, he edged out second-place getter Jesse Whitehead, with an 18-minute advantage as they head into Day 2 tomorrow.

Sitting in the second bunch on the first bike ride, Sutherland let the lead breakaway go, knowing he had to conserve some energy with the mountain run ahead of him. Reeling them in an hour up the Deception Valley, he took the lead and never looked back.

“I had a few periods of cramp on the way down, especially around Dudley’s Knob, but I enjoyed most of it,” he said.

Rounding out the top three males was Veteran Richard Greer in a time of 05:28:16.

They are part of 998 2-Day athletes who have taken on the 55-kilometre bike ride from Kumara Beach on the South Islands West Coast to Aickens corner, where they switched the cycling cleats for off-road shoes and headed across the Otira River and up the Deception Valley and over Goat Pass to finish 30.5 kilometres later at Klondyke Corner.

It’s a tight race in the Women’s 2 Day event with Christchurch’s Rebecca Firth stopping the timing mat in a time of 6:01:15, only five minutes ahead of second place Estelle Arundell from Dunedin. Also representing the southern city is Mary Gray who is a further 12 minutes back in third.

Ex-All Black Captain Richie McCaw and Olympic Rower Nathan Cohen have taken the lead in the Tandem Open male event in a time of 06:39:55, with a 20-minute lead over second-place Craig Ginders and Ben Dampier-Crossley. Over an hour separates the leader and third-place getters, Henry Moore and Mike Walker.

The 2-Day athletes start in two-minute waves at 7am tomorrow from Klondyke Corner, riding 17 kilometres to Mt White Bridge, before kayaking 70kms and finishing with a 70km bike down South Eyre Road to end up at Christchurch’s New Brighton beach.

The Longest Day competitors start back on Kumara beach at 6am.