Batelier, McQuaid win XTERRA European Championship in Italy

(Cala Ginepro, Orosei : Sardinia, Italy) - Frenchman Franky Batelier was just 15 seconds faster than Olivier Marceau, but that was all he needed to to keep his six-race winning streak alive at the XTERRA European Championship in Italy today.  In the women's race, Canadian Melanie McQuaid picked up her first win of season, and her second in Italy (she also won here in 2005).

"Kahuna Dave" Nicholas, the managing director of the XTERRA World Tour, was at the race and brings us this report (and photos)...

Don’t you wish we all had jobs like the weatherman?  It makes no difference if you are right or wrong, you still keep your job.  All week, the weather for Sunday’s race was predicted as rain, rain, and more rain.  Everyone here believed it to be true as for the past five years it has rained slightly during every XTERRA Italy, but much to the delight of competitors and fans the morning dawned picture perfect with temperatures in the mid 70’s, a nice breeze, and not a cloud in sight.

A full field of 400 was in place at 10am and ready to go in 65F degree (17.5C) azure blue, wonderfully clear Mediterranean water.  Organizers gave the pro athletes a 50-meter head start and the horn sounded right on time.  Like most championships, the swim was two laps with a short beach run.  Fabio Guidelli and Gianpietro deGaspari led the swim easily and headed out nose to tail on the bike.  At the famous “Orosei Bridge” they had a nice lead on Franky Batelier, Felix Schuman and Olivier Marceau.

That trio quickly gobbled up the Italian duo and Nico Lebrun, Ronny Dietz and Nico Pfitzenmaier were charging up through the field. At the end of the first lap it was Batelier pulling away from Marceau with Felix Schumann solid in third and Nico Lebrun just having passed DeFaveri.

For the women, French pro Marion Lorblanchet and new English pro Jacqui Slack were first out of the water surprising usually fastest woman pro Sibylle Matter.  Last week Renata Bucher came to the U.S. and beat the North American girls in Texas.  Three-time XTERRA World Champion Melanie McQuaid came to Italy seeking revenge and she rode a nearly perfect bike to pull away from Bucher who was back in the pack with a much slower swim.  Matter held second and Carina Wasle third for the first lap – but Bucher, once clear of traffic pushed extremely hard coming into the bike-to-run transition in 3rd place and quickly passed Sibylle in her chase to catch the Canadian McQuaid.  Mel was fast on the run today and despite Renata running her heart out she barely dented Mel’s lead and McQuaid came home just over two minutes ahead.

This was not the case in the men’s race.  Batelier seemed to have things all to himself with a handy 1:30 lead over Marceau, but the many time Champion and Olympian was hard out into the run after losing a handful of seconds being misdirected coming into transition.  Marceau ran hard and came oh so close to Franky finishing just a scant 15 seconds behind.  Schumann, last year’s Germany off-road champ had the fastest run of all to make sure he kept professor Nico Lebrun behind him.  Lebrun had a good 4th place finish and German Ronny Dietz, who had bad luck in Portugal, came back to fill out the top 5.

So the end of a perfect day had a brand new face on the top step for the women and a very familiar Frenchman at the top for the men.  Batelier has now gone all of last season and the first two races of 2010 without losing.  He looks happy and fast and is keeping his racing and training lighter this summer than last as he wants to come into Maui stronger than ever.  Marceau looked like the Oli of the past and Batelier needs to look over his shoulder a bit as his competition is getting very stiff.  Young Schumann was terrific, he has finished his University work (soon you will call him Doctor Schumann) and is concentrating hard on XTERRA.  He has all the speed and talent necessary and with a clear mind – it will not be long before this young start takes home the top spot.  For the women, Renata looked unstoppable until Mel made the trip.  We can’t be sure if McQuaid will return to Europe or stay back across the Atlantic but the thought is pretty exciting.

XTERRA Italy is a fantastic event, a complete experience in the XTERRA family, the Sardinian culture, food and friendliness.  The race sold out this year and if you are thinking of coming over you need to make sure you enter early and make your reservations.

PRO MEN RESULTS

POS	NAME	FINAL	SWIM	BIKE	RUN	GAP
1	Franky Batelier, FRA	2:24:10	00:18:57	01:26:59	00:37:16	00:00:00
2	Olivier Marceau, SUI	2:24:24	00:18:57	01:28:28	00:36:04	00:00:15
3	Felix Schumann, GER	2:25:29	00:18:56	01:29:49	00:35:37	00:01:20
4	Nico Lebrun, FRA	2:27:15	00:21:03	01:28:12	00:36:37	00:03:06
5	Ronny Dietz, GER	2:29:03	00:19:16	01:32:21	00:36:06	00:04:54
6	Nico Pfitzenmaier, GER	2:29:51	00:20:59	01:30:00	00:37:46	00:05:42
7	Yeray Luxem, BEL	2:30:54	00:19:25	01:32:43	00:37:37	00:06:45
8	Jim Thijs, BEL	2:33:09	00:19:24	01:32:40	00:40:02	00:09:00
9	Fabio Guidelli, ITA	2:33:42	00:18:26	01:37:19	00:37:01	00:09:33
10	Karel Zadak, CZE	2:36:43	00:20:51	01:32:22	00:42:02	00:12:34

Also: Graham Wadsworth, Gianpietro De Faveri, Fabian Combaluzier, Fabrizio Baralla, Ricard Calmet Calveras, Sam Gardner, Othmar Brueger, Carl Pasio, Jean Cattori, Llewellyn Holmes, Borja Conde, Julian Langer

PRO WOMEN RESULTS

POS	NAME	FINAL	SWIM	BIKE	RUN	GAP
1	Melanie McQuaid, CAN	2:45:10	00:21:19	01:39:56	00:42:48	00:21:01
2	Renata Bucher, SUI	2:47:19	00:23:29	01:40:13	00:42:11	00:23:10
3	Sibylle Matter, SUI	2:49:07	00:20:16	01:43:30	00:43:59	00:24:58
4	Carina Wasle, AUT	2:52:27	00:21:59	01:45:10	00:43:40	00:28:17
5	Marion Lorblanchet, FRA	2:57:09	00:19:28	01:53:10	00:42:44	00:33:00
6	Jacqui Slack, GBR	2:58:10	00:19:39	01:51:58	00:45:01	00:34:01
7	Maud Golsteyn, NED	2:59:22	00:22:55	01:52:58	00:41:53	00:35:13
8	Emma Ruth Smith, GBR	3:04:38	00:24:25	01:51:50	00:46:31	00:40:29
9	Myriam Guillot, FRA	3:05:21	00:23:31	01:55:16	00:44:27	00:41:12
10	Claudia Hossmann, SUI	3:09:38	00:23:48	01:56:32	00:47:17	00:45:29

Also: Ilaria Zavanone, Sara Tavecchio, Guiliana Lamastra, Claudia Walser, Monica Gabbanelli, Darrelle Parker

 

Learn more about the XTERRA European Tour at www.xterraeurope.com