Hoffman, Bryce win 3rd Annual XTERRA Four Corners

By Circ Toepel,  XTERRA rep

Sun, sand and a 67 degree swim started the day at Farmington Reservoir for the 3rd annual XTERRA Four Corners.  The reservoir was a little chilly this year due to a "no Spring" phenomenon but it didn't seem to bother Mike Melley who popped out of the water in 19:21 followed 36 seconds later by Patrick Valentine.  The mostly uphill run from the lake to T2 was a bit more sandy than the last 2 years due to the recent dry spell but Durango pro Ben Hoffman opened up an insurmountable lead on the 5.5 mile run.  Ben's time on the run was almost 2 minutes faster than Luke Jay who was fastest amateur.  Will Kelsay, the other pro in attendance did his best to chase down Ben on the fast, flowing, 19.5 mile single track but even with a smoking 36 second T2 he couldn't catch the local boy.  Will might have been trying to leave a little in reserve for the back to back suffer-fest created this year when Farmington got together with the Deuces Wild folks and decided to have an elusive "Double Crown".

Luke Jay was the top finisher for age groups and his bike time of 1:14:24 made for an exciting finish as he was only .4 second behind Will at the finish line!  Wanting a piece of the excitement, Jason Michalak showed up a mere 6 seconds later.

The women's race started with Luisa Bryce coming out of the water in 23:41, only 6 seconds behind  Becky Batizy.  Cady Simpson, a local Farmington teenager, followed shortly after with a 24:09 swim.  On the run up to T2, Jaime Brede from Breckenridge started to eat into Luisa's lead by posting the fastest women's split of 47:48.  Luisa and Kristine Gewin both ran 48:38 which gave Luisa a solid 4 minute lead into T2. 

Jaime did her best to cut into her lead by cranking out the fastest bike split of the day of 1:33:41 but at the finish it was Luisa Bryce from Denver winning with a time of 2:48:19.  Jaime finished in 2:51:09.   Paula Maresh from Littleton made a great challenge for 3rd place with her 1:37:48 bike split and almost caught Caroline Colonna from Taos.  There were many more exciting finishes with only a few seconds separating close friends and rivals.  17 year old Cady finished her first off road triathlon in the top ten!

Many of the seasoned XTERRA racers know what a phenomenal athlete Mike Hicks is both in and out of the physically challenged division.  He had his hands full with the new guy Craig Vogtsberger here.  Craig had a faster swim and a faster run but Mike tore up the bike course in 1:36:52 to come within 2 minutes of Craig at the finish.  Nice job guys!  Mike then proceeded to Deuces for increased suffering.

If you have ridden this course even once you know why Four Corners fills up fast and there is always a waiting list.  The city of Farmington is a role model nationwide and some race directors come here just to see how it is done.  Many competitors like the different format.  Personally, I think it is hard to beat the single track here.  The post race festivities were short and sweet because over 25% of the racers jumped into their vehicles to drive down to Show Low and race Deuces Wild the very next day.  Before leaving, Will Kelsay proclaimed "this race is easily in the top ten of my favorites". That says it all. 

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