"But it's always good to throw things to the wind and change up your routine before a race. People get nailed in on things and if it's not all fine then the whole race doesn't go to plan.
"Generally I have a good routine, but today it was just out the window."
Compton won in 01h 54m 45s, beating fellow Wellingtonian Edwin Crossling by 29 seconds. The pair are familiar with one another, not only because they share a home city, but also from October's NDuro Whaka 100 that Compton also won.
"We were neck and neck for 75km in [the Whaka 100] and I was like, 'today's under 50km and Ed was pretty strong for 50km', and he was today and he kept me honest on the first two laps."
The break came on the single track on the third lap.
"I attacked him just before and got a gap and just rode tempo from there," Compton said.
Crossling said the race mirrored the Whaka 100.
"I didn't quite have the punch to hold on," he said.
The race was Compton's first on a mountain bike for some time, and he now has little preparation time before the national championships in Wanaka on February 25 and 26.
"I've been riding my road bike a lot and just jumped back on my (mountain) bike on Friday. My coach said it's probably a good idea to do some mountain bike riding.
"The skills are a bit sketchy and in the technical stuff I'm a bit rough and don't have the right line at the moment, but it will come back pretty quickly I think."
Auckland's Jessica Manchester, 17, a member of the Rotorua-based Mountain Bike National Performance Hub, took the women's long course race, three minutes ahead of Samantha Kingsford.
"I'm happy with that. It's a lot longer than what I'm used to. It's good training though and my goal was to go hard for the first hour and a half and then make it through that last bit.
''We are coming up to nationals and I won't be riding for two hours there.''
On Wednesday, Manchester heads back to Australia for round five and six of the Australian national title series, then to Wanaka for the nationals.
Yesterday's race was a far cry from her last outing when she won the previous round of the Australian series in a sprint finish.
Results
Long course (three 13.8km laps)
Men: 1 Jack Compton 01:54:45, 2 Edwin Crossling 01:55:14, 3 Sam Osborne 01:57:57.
Women: 1, Jessica Manchester 02:17:27, 2 Samantha Kingsford 02:20:33, 3 Fiona MacDermid 02:24:55.
Mid course (two 13.8km laps)
Men: 1, George Furniss 01:20:16, 2, Samuel Lord 01:20:18, 3, Caleb Bottcher 01:20:27
Women: 1 Sammie Maxwell 01:31:16, 2, Sarah Backler 01:36:04, 3, Kayla Russell 01:36:04
Short course (one 13.8km lap)
Men: 1, Jack Naish 00:40:38, 2, Alex Rainbow 00:45:11, 3, Cameron Beck 00:47:04.
Women: 1, Hannah Howell 00:54:32, 2, Emma Lord 00:56:01, 3, Mia Gemmell 00:56:47
