Stoltz, McQuaid win 2nd of the season - the XTERRA Midwest Cup in Battle Creek, Michigan

AUGUSTA, MI (May 17, 2009) - Melanie McQuaid celebrated her 36th birthday in style by joining fellow 3x XTERRA World Champ Conrad Stoltz on the top step of the XTERRA Midwest Cup podium at Fort Custer State Park just outside of Battle Creek, Michigan on Sunday.

Stoltz and McQuaid are now 2-for-2 in XTERRA Cup Series racing, as both captured the first race of the year at Lake Las Vegas, Nevada earlier this month.  The duo, along with a few dozen other traveling XTERRA pros, will make their way to Shelby County, Alabama for race No. 3, the XTERRA Southeast Cup this Saturday (May 23).

"The community here totally embraced this event, and it was like XTERRA old school with everyone hanging out together along with the whole town," said McQuaid.  "The course is fabulous, Battle Creek wins top honors for total friendliness, I had the home stay of the century, the bike store (Team Active) rolled out the red carpet, and it was all-in-all just an awesome experience."

For more on today's race, here's the managing director of the XTERRA World Tour, "Kahuna Dave" Nicholas ...

The return for XTERRA to the Midwest was greeted this Sunday morning with 30-degree temperatures and ice in the shallow water.  It was COLD.  Water temp was 62 at the turn buoys and we were all warned the night would bring cold weather, but below freezing was a bit more than predicted.

By the 8am race start the sky was brighter and the temps were up into the 50’s.   The pro’s got a 30-second head start on the age group mass start on a two-lap 500-meter per lap swim.

Just 13 mInutes later a hot pack led by Craig Evans, Conrad Stoltz, Seth Wealing and Christine Jeffrey popped on shore and headed out into the sweet trails of Fort Custer State Park.  A great place to bike with mature trails, twists and turns, water crossings, tree trunks across the trails and fast and tacky conditions from the light rains the day before.  Stoltz got on his big horse and simply pedaled away from the pack.  Hugo started giving Stoltz' something to worry about on the first lap.  “I kept looking back and Dan was still there and even closing a bit” Stoltz remembered.  “Then he suddenly was gone and I thought he hit a tree”.  It was not a tree, but the fact that Hugo lost a contact lens and was having depth perception troubles.

On the women’s side, McQuaid came out of the water a minute and a half behind Jeffrey, but a very quick T1 and fast riding put her up and out in front as quickly as Stoltz.

So you think it was a parade?  Not on your life.  Behind the two victors there was some very serious and close racing.  At the end of lap one Hugo was still close to Conrad, Josiah Middaugh was coming up fast and Mike Vine had pulled up into 4th with Nico Lebrun coming quickly.  On the women’s side Jeffrey was a fine second but Swiss Miss Renata Bucher had moved up to third, Shonny Vanlandingham 4th with Jen Smith posting the fastest women’s bike time pushing hard.

Things continued to shake up as they headed out on the run.  Shonny consolidated 4th and Renata and Jeffrey were nose to tail on the first lap.  Chris felt her legs tightening on the second lap and sure enough a calf muscle let go but she was still able to struggle home to a fine 3rd place.

On the men's side, Hugo was second with Josiah and Mike Vine coming up on him fast.  Nico was looking OK but not as fast as usual in 5th with a pretty close pack of Seth Wealing, Brian Smith, Craig Evans, Branden Rakita and Michigan’s own Ryan Decook.

In the end Canadian Vine was able to put a bit on Middaugh to steal 2nd, Hugo, vision impaired finished a fine 4th and Lebrun was 5th.

As the race was finishing the sun came out and we warmed up to maybe 60, but some fine pulled pork, beans, cole slaw and fine local Ale from Arcadia Brewing made it all perfect.  Jim and Joyce Donaldson and the Elite Endeavors crew put on a great event at a great site.  Welcome back Midwest.

Complete Results
TOP 15 PRO MEN
 
Pl  Name  Age  Hometown  Time  Pts  Purse
1  Conrad Stoltz  35  Stellenbosch, South Africa  2:03:16  100  $1,800
2  Mike Vine  35  Victoria, B.C., Canada  2:04:13  90  $1,250
3  Josiah Middaugh  30  Vail, Colorado  2:04:27  82  $800
4  Dan Hugo  23  Stellenbosch, South Africa  2:05:27  75  $500
5  Nico Lebrun  35  Digne, France  2:06:00  69  $400
6  Seth Wealing  30  Boulder, Colorado  2:06:31  63  $300
7  Brian Smith  33  Gunnison, Colorado  2:08:20  58  $200
8  Branden Rakita  28  Manitou Springs, Colorado  2:10:10  53  
9  Craig Evans  31  Spring Hill, Tennessee  2:10:20  49  
10  Ryan Decook  28  Rochester, Michigan  2:13:09  45  
Also: Cody Waite (41), Scott Gall (37), Matt Boobar (34), Will Kelsay (31), Aaron Scheidies (28)

 
TOP PRO WOMEN  
 
Pl  Name  Age  Hometown  Time  Pts  Purse
1  Melanie McQuaid  35  Victoria, B.C., Canada  2:20:26  100  $1,800
2  Renata Bucher  31  Lucerne, Switzerland  2:23:23  90  $1,250
3  Christine Jeffrey  36  Guelph, Ontario, Canada  2:24:21  82  $800
4  Shonny Vanlandingham  39  Durango, Colorado  2:25:05  75  $500
5  Jenny Smith  36  Westport, New Zealand  2:26:29  69  $400
6  Jari Kirkland  33  Crested Butte, Colorado  2:38:08  63  
7  Emma Garrard  27  Truckee, California  2:42:42  58  
8  Alexandra Borrelly  33  Digne, France  2:43:17  53  
9  Erin Kummer  24  Rochester Hills, Michigan  2:46:13  49  

The XTERRA Midwest Cup was the second of eight big XTERRA Cup championship races in the nationwide XTERRA America Tour that boasts 60 races in 32 states.

2009 XTERRA CUP SERIES STANDINGS (After 2)  

PRO MEN
 
Pl  Name  1  2  Total
1  Conrad Stoltz  100  100  200
2  Josiah Middaugh  90  82  172
3  Mike Vine  75  90  165
4  Dan Hugo  82  75  157
5  Brian Smith  53  58  111
6  Seth Wealing  37  63  100
7  Branden Rakita  45  53  98
8  Craig Evans  49  49  98
9  Cody Waite  34  41  75
10  Nico Lebrun  DNF  69  69
11  Jasper Blake  69  DNS  69
12  Steve Larsen  63  DNS  63
13  Will Kelsay  31  31  62
14  Justin Thomas  58  DNS  58
15  Ryan Dcook  DNP  45  45
16  Ryan Ignatz  41  DNS  41
17  Scott Gall  DNS  37  37
18  Matt Boobar  DNS  34  34
19  Aaron Scheidies  DNS  28  28
20  Jeff Smith  28  DNS  28

 
PRO WOMEN  
 
Pl  Name  1  2  Total
1  Melanie McQuaid  100  100  200
2  Renata Bucher  75  90  165
3  Shonny Vanlandingham  90  75  165
4  Christine Jeffrey  69  82  151
5  Jenny Smith  53  69  122
6  Emma Garrard  63  58  121
7  Jari Kirkland  28  63  91
8  Alexandra Borrelly  31  53  84
9  Lesley Paterson  82  DNS  82
10  Rebecca Dussault  58  DNS  58
11  Erin Kummer  DNS  49  49
12  Danelle Kabush  49  DNS  49
13  Jenny Tobin  45  DNS  45
14  Ingrid Rolles  41  DNS  41
15  Sari Anderson  37  DNS  37
16  Tracy Thelen  34  DNS  34

1 = Loews XTERRA West Cup - May 2  
2 = XTERRA Midwest Cup - May 17  

Next up:  XTERRA Southeast Cup at Oak Mountain State Park in Shelby County (Pelham, AL) on May 23.

The 2009 XTERRAMidwest Cup is presented by Paul Mitchell and XTERRA.TV.  National sponsors include GU, XTERRAGear.com, Rodale, Zorrel, Gatorade, Choice Hotels, and the Utah Sports Commission; and local sponsors are Battle Creek Visitors Bureau, Team Active, Southwest Michigan Eye Center, BiCi Bistro, Arcadia Ales, Trikats.org, and In The Zone.