Chris Legh Wins as XTERRA Returns to Australia

XTERRA returned down under in the grand old mining town of Daylesford in Victoria.  This quaint tourist village is about an hour or so from Melbourne and is chock full of restaurants, antiques, vintage shops, craftsmen and everything you could want, including the very gorgeous Daylesford Lake and forest.  Over 450 athletes showed up for a mixed menu of mountain bike, running, short and XTERRA distance races.  The weather, while a bit chilly with a sprinkle here and there, held off for a fast and safe race circuit.

Ironman racer Sam Hume and young roadie Jamie Rhodes led out of the water, but very shortly Chris Legh and Leon Griffin passed into the lead.  Pre race favorite Legh had his hands full all day.  After a great 4th at World's on Maui we would have expected a bigger lead coming off the bike, but Ben Allen, Griffin and Rhodes were all within 90 seconds of Chris and runner Jared Kohler just 30 seconds back of the bunch.  Legh knew he was in for a scrap but had previewed the killer 2 lap run course and was confident he was more equipped to handle an XTERRA run than the others.  At the end of the first lap the big Aussie Legh had increased his lead over Griffin and Kohler had busted his way into third and Allen had faded to 6th.  Expatriate Andrew Noble and former Aussie champ the un-retired Jason Chalker were not having stellar days.  Noble was perhaps a bit tired after having won XTERRA's in Saipan and Guam.  Chalks simply said he didn't have it on the day.

Legh glanced behind him, saw nobody, and said he was concentrating on one step at a time knowing he would have to fall to lose the race.  He didn't and won by over 2 minutes from Griffin, Kohler and Hume.  Noble was valiant in 8th and the very quick run of Matt McDonough took him to 6th passing Ben Allen on the last lap.

The women's race was taken by New Zealand's Suzie Wood.  Quick age grouper Nicola Leary was second overall with Meg Russell 2nd pro.  The treat was to see two very young 15-19 girls, New Zealand's Monique Avery who celebrated her 19th birthday and Aussie Charlotte McShane in 4th and 5th female overall just 2.5 minutes apart.  Monique is the reigning 15-19 World Champ and clearly has some new competition from Charlotte.  We look forward to seeing them both in Maui.

The awards party featured about 20 kangaroo's feeding on the fairways of the local golf course, Aussie meat pies and other local favorites including the most favorite of all Aussie foods - ice cold beer.  So please think about next year, as did a few Yanks, where you can take your "down under" holiday in Australia and New Zealand and race your legs off. 

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