However, experience tells him he would be foolish to rule wind out, so he will be basing himself in the district from Christmas Eve to train on the Wanaka course and the Crown Range.
The dark horse victor of the race this year was the only individual athlete who could produce a sub five-hour 180km bike leg, completing it in 4hr 59min 47sec.
"At times on the bike I struggled to stay upright and spared a thought for less strong athletes," Whyte (30) said in an interview with the Otago Daily Times.
Organisers and international athletes said the conditions were the toughest they had experienced but the Southland born-and-bred athlete battled worse at Challenge Vichy in France in August.
There, he was third in 43degC temperatures, high humidity and - again - a nasty wind.
"I think it was [worse than Challenge Wanaka]. I had never raced or trained in anything like it," Whyte recalled.
"I arrived two weeks before and thought I had acclimatised but every day it just got hotter and hotter . . A few days before the race, I went outside to have lunch and thought 'Oh my God, how am I going to race in this?"'
Whyte grew up on a farm at Waianiwa, between Invercargill and Riverton, and studied at Southland Boys High School from 1995-1999 before attending Otago University's surveying school in Dunedin from 2000-2003.
He was bitten by the triathlon bug during his last year at university, while working a summer holiday job in Queenstown.
He entered the national standard distance triathlon championships held that year in Queenstown, finished in the top 10 in the 24-29 age group, and qualified for the world age group championships, also held in Queenstown.
He continued with triathlon after moving to Auckland in 2004 to work for property development firm Woods, but came to understand his physiology was not well suited to short courses and 10km runs.
As a strong time-trial cyclist he felt more at home in non-drafting races so he began building his endurance over half-ironman distances before debuting in Ironman Canada in 2010, finishing 13th.
Whyte expects Australians Courtney Ogden, Leon Griffin, Aaron Farlow and Justin Granger will create a running race.
Ogden finished second in January and took 5min out of Whyte's 7min lead during the marathon.
"Definitely you don't want an Aussie to come over to win the race. But they are great athletes and I have raced them a bit this year," Whyte said.
The last Challenge Wanaka was Whyte's second long-distance race and he relished being the unknown factor.
"Obviously it makes a difference. I suppose this time the other athletes may have an eye on me. Last time I was able to get up the road as less of a concern to them . . . [This year] I need to be able to ride well into the head wind on the way home. I think that's a key part of the race.
"And something I've been working on hard this year is improving my run splits, getting them under three hours," he said.
Whyte is also looking forward to racing his compatriots, who include 2010 winner Richard Ussher, Keiran Doe and Keegan Williams.
"I am not a strong swimmer. Neither is Richard, but Richard is strong on the bike and the off-road nature on the run will favour him... You can't write Richard off, for sure," he said.
The form of Petr Vabrousek (Czech Republic) and 2008 winner Marc Pschebezin (Germany) would be more unknown because they would be racing in their off-season, he said.
Whyte has been coached since 2010 by former Coast to Coast champion Gordon Walker. He trains up to 30 hours a week and usually races overseas between May and August.
Unlike his full-time professional rivals, Whyte still has a day job and works up to 30 hours a week as a surveyor for Woods.
"They have become more and more flexible and I've been very lucky. But obviously it is a goal to be a fulltime triathlete. I will keep working on that . . . Juggling your schedule is always challenging but adds discipline. I get up in the morning with no option but to chop out training straight away before going to work," he said.
Whyte's fiancee, Fiona Eagles, is also a triathlete and intends to race in Wanaka in January, following a promising debut in Challenge Vichy, where she finished fifth in the professional women's field.
Jamie Whyte
Long-distance triathlete
Age: 30.
From: Southland.
Lives: Auckland.
Occupation: Surveyor.
Significant recent results:
• 2011 Challenge Wanaka, 1
• 2011 Challenge Cairns, 4
• 2011 Challenge Vichy, 3
• 2011 Busselton 70:3, 5
• 2010 Taiwan 70:3, 2
• 2010 Auckland half ironman, 2
