XTERRA Austria: A Star is Born

By Dave Nicholas

The second edition of the XTERRA Austria Championship in Carinthia was fantastic.  Despite rain almost all day, competition was fierce, the course a challenge and the location perfect.  And out of the fog emerged a new star - aptly named Michael - but not Phelps, our new star is Michael Weiss.

In the days leading up to the event we heard about Austrian mountainbike phenom Michael Weiss being touted as a potential race winner.  Conrad was in the States, Marceau still in China and Nico Lebrun was ill and had to cancel.  So while 3 of the fastest men were absent, Franky Batelier, German Champ Ronnie Dietz, Felix Schumann, Jim Thijs and others were all in attendance.

The women's field had World Champ Julie Dibens as the headliner with Renatat Bucher, current European Tour leader Anna Bayliss-Scheiderbauer and local Austrian favorite Carina Wasle to challenge.

The swim start had been moved a bit to make room for the more than 200 entrants in the main event.  There were over 500 including XTERRA Light, Corporate and team competitions.  A tribute to the marketing and organizational team put together by Robert Latschen.  As the athletes completed the first 750m lap, the sprinkles began.  By the time the leaders were in and on their way for the 1K run to transition it was a bit heavier.  Soon we had real rain - not a storm and the air temp was nice, but on a technical course like this it would make for some interesting riding.

At the end of the first lap Weiss led Batelier by just a few feet.  This did not bode well for the Frenchman as he led the Austrian by over 2 minutes out of the swim.  "I tried to stay with him on the second lap but he was very very strong" remarked the two time XTERRA winner.  Indeed Michael Weiss was on a mission spanking the field with a bike time 7 minutes faster than anyone else giving him a full 5 minute lead onto the run.  Batelier was not finished and ran hard but could only make up one minute.  At that point he knew he needed to consolidate his second place.

Dibens, as is her method, blitzed the field on the swim and in typical English summer weather (cool and raining) had little trouble keeping her lead.  Poor Carina Wasle was out of the race early with hypothermia.  Anna Bayliss-Scheiderbauer and Renata Bucher chased with Renata coming home second woman but six minutes back.  At T1 Julie had a lead that was almost exactly the same, so despite the mtb skills of Anna and Renata they could not pull anything back on the tall Brit.

Brit Karl Shaw came out of the water first followed by Gianpetro DeFaveri and newcomer from Finland Mikko Vastaranta.  Weiss did not lose that much to the field and with that phenomenal first bike lap simply dropped everyone.  Czech Karel Zadak is constantly improving and came off the bike with 30 seconds in hand over the German duo of Ronny Dietz and Felix Schumann.  The Panzer twins quickly passed Zadak and continued their battle for 3rd behind the long gone Weiss and Batelier.  In the end Dietz grabbed the podium step with young Schumann just 19 seconds back.  Zadak ran a smart race to take his second top 5 of the season, putting him in the top 10 in points with one to go.  Bayliss-Scheiderbauer has a commanding lead for the women, and needs just a decent finish to win her first European title.  Renata is coming on strong, will Julie show in France?  Where will Weiss go in September?  Is he ready to go south and face Lebrun, Marceau, Batelier and Fleurton; the 4 French Musketeers in their homeland?  If you listen to Franky Batelier "He has the strength to win Maui" said the fast Frenchman.  So not only is a star born in Michael Weiss, but the Austrian Star rose high with two completely killer parties on Friday and Saturday, great food, cold beer, chilly white wine (Weiss wein) and a village that offers everything.  Next throw in the XTERRA Austria rock song performed by SMASH with lyrics from the lovely Astrid Kircher (one of the chiefs of XTERRA Austria) and you have another Must Do event to put on your calendar.  Forget the mountains; fresh, clear lake water; green hills, wurst and schnitzel.  What happened in Austria was between the social life one damned fine XTERRA race happened.

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