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Media Contact
Press and Media CenterWorld Champs Head to XTERRA UK in Wales, Manzan and Prada Win XTERRA BrazilWORLD CHAMPS AT XTERRA UK IN WALES ... From Tri247.com: Ahead of this weekend's XTERRA UK, Sam Gardner, Great Britain's leading male XTERRA athlete, takes a look at this weekend's race and tell us who he thinks will be the athletes to watch out for. Sam previewed the XTERRA UK bike course for Tri247 and you can read that report here. What a race we should have in store in Resolven this weekend. Both current XTERRA World Champions will be present - Conrad 'the Caveman' Stoltz and our own Julie Dibens - along with former XTERRA World Champ Nico LeBrun of France. It'll be interesting to see how Conrad's young protegee, Dan Hugo does. Fellow South African Dan seemed to be able to match Conrad on the swim and bike at recent races and is certainly a talent for the future. Other South African interest will be in the form of Lieuwe Boonstra, who podiumed here last year. Nico LeBrun of France is running brilliantly and is a strong biker. At the European Championships last weekend, Nico and I exited the swim in the top 30, biked into the top five and Nico went on to claim a fantastic second with the quickest run of the day. The harder and longer bike course in Wales will suit us both. Several German athletes are always near the front of the European tour and should be on the start line, look out for Ronny Dietz and Felix Schumann, along with Jim Thijs from Belgium. The UK pro Jim McConnell didn't race in Sardina and this will be his first outing of the year and he'll be looking to match last year's top ten finish. The women's race was supposed to be a showdown between the current World Champion Julie Dibens and three times World champion Melanie McQuaid, however, Melanie stayed back in Canada after her boyfriend took a nasty spill on his bike this week (see racergirl.com for details). Nicky Duggan provides the other British interest and is talented enough to improve on her fifth place pro finish in Denmark last year. The current European Champion, Sibylle Matter, plus Renata Bucher and Carina Wasle are names to watch out for. Let's hope the weather stays good and we should be in store for a great weekend of racing. MANZAN, PRADA WIN XTERRA BRAZIL For the first time since the inception of XTERRA Brazil back in 2005 a local took home top honors as Brazilian star Alexandre Manzan finished more than four minutes ahead of Argentinian great Oscar Galindez and eight minutes in front one of America’s best Brian Smith to win in 2:14:10. In the women’s race Carla Prada – who won the amateur division here two years ago – won the overall women’s title in 2:58:57, just a minute better than Barbara Bomfim. The event, which took place in Angra dos Reis just outside of Rio, hosted more than 1,000 participants including 350+ in the off-road tri and 600+ in the trail run, plus a swim event and kids races. The pro athletes were escorted to the start line in the back of Frontier trucks accompanied by Superman theme music and a new twist to the race was a mud pool, which race organizer Bernardo Fonseca said was a huge hit. “I started the run and caught up to 3rd place then lost my shoe in this huge mud hole. My feet were swimming in my shoes for the rest of the run with lots of steep climbing and off camber descents,” said Brian Smith. “The day after the race I took a bike ride with Bernardo and saw a monkey in a tree, first wild monkey I've ever seen, and Rio is beautiful.” INAUGURAL FOUR CORNERS A SUCCESS By Circ Toepel, XTERRA Rep: Wicked fun bike course! Best XTERRA course ever! These are just a few of the comments after the inaugural XTERRA Four Corners race in Farmington, New Mexico. The whole city of Farmington got behind this event to make it happen. The Fire Dept provided EMT service, the police helped with the traffic control, the parks and recreation provided access to some of the finest single track in NM and quite possibly the entire U.S.! The race started like normal with a swim. A chilly 66 degrees, 1400 yard, 2 lap swim, in which almost everyone wore a wetsuit. Eric Snowberg made it out first in 17:52 followed by Karl Edgerton and Carl Abrams. A few short minutes later Julie Bruckman emerged as the first female with Molly Hummel and Kim Katko right behind. In an effort to get in as much of the classic Road Apple Rally bike course, the organizers wisely chose to place the run portion of this race next. Jason Michalak entered T2 first by running up the 5.5 mile hill from Farmington Lake to Lyons Wilderness Park in 36:36. Several top dogs came into transition shortly after but Jason had what many would consider an insurmountable lead. Even Ed Oliver thought there was no way he could catch him. Ed’s forte is the bike and he made the most of it by relentlessly attacking one of Ned Overend’s favorite bike courses. Ed laid down a 1:04:24 bike split, over 4 minutes faster than anyone else, to catch sight of his training buddy on the pavement leading to the finish. With one last push, Ed made a final pass just before the dismount to run across the finish line in 2:10:16, just a few feet before Jason. Tom Ober rounded out the top 3 by finishing less than a minute later in 2:10:59 The women were charging hard to overcome Julie’s killer swim. Amy Regan from Los Alamos posted a 43:55 run split and Caroline Colonna out of Taos whipped off a 1:18:39 bike ride on the 16.5 mile course. In the end, nobody put it together like Julie who finished in 2:30:26, nearly 4 minutes ahead of 2nd place. Caroline crossed the line next and Molly Hummel from Durango worked her way up to 3rd with a 2:35:18 finish. MAUI QUALIFIERS FROM RICHMOND By virtue of their performances at the XTERRA East Championship in Richmond, VA on Sunday the following 34 athletes representing 11 states and Costa Rica have qualified for the 2008 XTERRA World Championship on October 26 in Makena, Maui. Division Name Hometown |
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