A LAKE District athlete has become the inaugural winner of an ultra-long distance triathlon in North America.

Ambleside's Chris Stirling held off 102 other finishes to win the Canada Man in the harsh forests of Quebec.

He completed a 3.8km swim of Lac Mégantic, 180 km of biking along the Route des Sommets with an elevation gain of 2500m, and a 42km run to the finish Mont-Mégantic Observatory in 11:08:24.

What makes the 35 year old's feat even more impressive is that it came just three weeks after he took victory in the gruelling Celtman AllXtri race around the Scottish Torridon mountains.

"I often do those type of races and it came it as an opportunity but obviously knew there wasn't much time between the two but it was too good a chance to turn down," said Sterling.

"I was really quite shocked because I was fully expecting to struggle with fatigue on the run but it just didn't happen at all.

"I never go to a race expecting to win, I just go as hard as I can and if it turns out to be good enough as it did then that's amazing."

The Canada Man / Canada Woman event is set to be added to the AllXtri series, which currently includes the Celtman, Swissman and Norseman events, and Stirling believes it would be a worthy addition.

"The area it's actually in is absolutely beautiful, it's just in a massive forest," he said. "The swim was in a huge lake, much bigger than Windermere, the bike route is really hilly and you're going through the forest and lots of little villages, and there was a lot of mud and rocks on the trials for the run. It almost felt like you were in the jungle.

"But the view at the top of the forest just goes on forever with mountains popping out, it really was spectacular, it felt really wild."