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The World Cup returns with what will likely be a series-defining 3 weekends of back-to-back racing in Czech, Germany, and the USA. Here’s where the top 5 men and women stand, and what the next races will mean for them.
While the first half of the XTERRA World Cup delivered 3 unpredictable stops in 3 months, the second half is set to up the ante with 3 stops in 3 weekends. It’s a do or die run ahead of the final stop in Trentino, with 5 races in 14 days and the potential for big changes in the rankings.
The action kicks off with a double-feature weekend in Czech where already all 4 reigning male champions are confirmed on the start list - World Champion Arthur Serrières, Euro Champion Felix Forissier, APAC Champion Kieran McPherson, and USA Champion Sullivan Middaugh. Series leader, Jens Emil Sloth Nielsen, will also be up front with the likes of Ruben Ruzafa, Maxim Chané and the seemingly unstoppable Arthur Forissier for a lead pack that could not better illustrate the level of strength the series has given rise to.
The same applies to the start list for the women. The battles we’ve seen in the water, on the bike, and on the run between the top ranked female athletes have been immense, and in Czech we’ll once again get to see series leader, Alizée Paties, go up against the ever-threatening World Champion Solenne Billouin, the newly crowned European Champion Loanne Duvoisin, Marta Menditto and the dangerously in-form Sandra Mairhofer.
The full distance race in Czech holds a maximum of 100 points for the winner, while the Short Track race holds an additional 20. Czech is where Short Track was conceived, tested and perfected and set to be an absolute banger with Czech National TV handling the production with more in-course cameras than any other race.
From Czech, the series heads directly to Germany the following weekend for another double-feature weekend, only this time with the Short Track Race preceding the full distance race. A maximum total of 120 points are on offer, and the race will be the final chance for the Europeans looking to avoid travel to make an impact ahead of Trentino. A lot may depend on what happens in Czech, with the possibility of a redemption race for some in Germany.
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Six days later the series lands in Beaver Creek for the USA Championship. It’s the highest altitude race in the series but also offers the most opportunity. As a regional championship the full-distance race offers more points than Czech and Germany, and with many of the Euro athletes unlikely to make the long trip, the chance to score big is there for those that do.
The most important thing to understand is that athletes’ final scores at the end of the series are not the sum of all their race points - it's the sum of their best 4 full distance races, best 3 Short Track races, and whatever they get (or don't get) from the XTERRA World Championship full distance race. They don't have to count the Trentino Short Track, but do have to count whatever they get (or don't) at the XTERRA World Championship in Trentino.
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If Paties needed any validation for her decision to become a full-time pro this season, her World Cup tally is it. The French athlete has seen more podiums than any other racer in the series and now leads the womens’ division with more points than any anybody else - male or female.
She opened the series with a famously hard fought win in Taiwan and has remained at the top of the pile since then - securing a second straight win in the Oak Mountain full distance and a 3rd in the European Championship, as well as two 2nd place finishes in the Short Track races.
But despite the foundation she has already set, Paties cannot take her foot off the gas as she heads into Czech and Germany. Much like the men, the level of competition amongst the elite women has risen significantly this year, with almost every athlete in the top half of the leaderboard able to deliver a win. Some of the greatest battles so far in this series have come from the womens’ race, and with some athletes seemingly finding their stride as the series gets further along, expect those battles to only get better.
“I’ll fight and do my best to keep the golden cap.”
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The freshly crowned 2023 XTERRA European Champion has been consistently good from the start of this series but showed that there is still more to come after beating the single toughest field so far in this series to take the Full Distance win in Belgium. She opened with a strong 3rd place finish in Taiwan, looking like she could still go a few K’s more. Physical issues led her to an uncharacteristically low finish in Oak Mountain, taking 7th in the Full Distance, but she bounced back the next day to win the Short Track race and prove that her overall win in the 2022 Short Track Series was no fluke.
Then in Belgium she showed just how strong and fast she can be by taking the Full Distance win to become the new European Champion and establishing herself as the biggest threat to the current series leader.
The Swiss athlete now heads into Czech and Germany, meaning that by the end of August she will have raced 5 full distance races of which only the best 4 count towards her overall score. Barring any mechanicals or mishaps in the final 2 European races, she could be able to drop Oak Mountain from her scoring races and make a play for the top.
“The goal is to win a few extra points for the series ranking, but also to be able to continue riding with the girls at the front.”
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Marta Menditto will be a name to watch, not only this season but for many to come. At just 24 years old she rides up front with the best and is lightning fast on her feet.
She didn’t get the best start to the series when she finished with a 7th place in Taiwan, but bounced back immediately with a silver finish in the Oak Mountain Full Distance and a 4th in the Short Track. She showed again that she is a force to be reckoned with, with a 5th place finish in the absolutely stacked field at the European Championship in Belgium.
The Italian will need good results in her next two races in Czech and Germany to overtake Duvoisin or Paties, but having finally had time to put in a big block of training, including some altitude training in Livigno, it’s almost guaranteed that we’ll see some really exciting racing from her up front.
On her strategy for racing 4 events in 10 days:
“FULLL GAASSS!”
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Suzie Snyder has more XTERRA racing experience than any of the top 5 females in the series but still holds the ability to push up front with the leading pack.
The American athlete, famously known as ‘the Soul Crusher’ has not claimed any podiums yet but has instead claimed her tally through consistency. She opened her World Cup campaign with a 6th place finish in Taiwan before going on to take 5th and 7th in the Oak Mountain and Belgium full distance races, with a 7th and 9th in the Short Track races.
Currently she is not on the start list for Czech and Germany, strategically saving herself for a hometown race at the USA Championship. She’s already claimed the USA Championship crown 5 times, and will no doubt be hunting a 6th. Championship races come with additional points which could go a long way for the American as she looks to solidify her position in the top 5.
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Despite sitting in 5th position, some might argue that Sandra Mairhofer could still be the favourite to take the series. After a bit of a shaky start with a 4th place finish in Taiwan, the multi-sport queen has seen nothing but podiums inside XTERRA and in multiple other competitions.
She is also the only athlete in the top 5 to not have raced all 3 stops. So while her current score of 202 may be a bit deceiving, her second place finish at the European Championship with a Short Track win the following day might be a better indicator of what the Italian is capable of.
Multiple competitors have already pointed to Mairhofer as the best biker in the series and she just backed that up with a 1st place finish at the Italian National Championships for XCM (cross-country marathon), where she won by more than 9 minutes. She will now represent team Italy at the UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow in just a few days on August 3rd. This, coupled with her ability to consistently perform at the highest level, could make her one of the biggest threats in the series.
“I am really excited to race and compete at the highest level on the best tracks!
The momentum building behind Mairhofer and the consistency of series leader Alizée Paties could easily make for one of the biggest battles of the series at the final stop in Trentino.
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The Danish MTB specialist has held the lead since Oak Mountain, with consistency playing to his favour this far. His current score comes from 3 full distance races (3rd in Taiwan, 3rd in Oak Mountain, 4th in Belgium) and 2 Short Track races (2nd in Oak Mountain and 2nd in Belgium), but his position at the top could be in danger to those who have raced fewer races with better results as the amount of races even out in the second half.
He has always been open that his swim is his weak point but once that improves he will become a force to be reckoned with as he grows faster on the feet and has always been lethal on the bike. The Dane is aware of his precarious position and will no doubt be holding nothing back in Czech.
“I wanna win it. I have the courage to go really hard, and I don’t think about “defending” my World Cup lead anymore.”
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The XTERRA World Champion has had a turbulent series up to this point but still sits in 2nd place after taking maximum points at Stop #2 and also by virtue of racing all 5 races so far.
He began with what he called the worst race of his career when he took the gamble to arrive in Taiwan with barely 24 hours to acclimatise, crumbling to the humidity and walking away with the 64 points that came with 7th place. But he immediately bounced back with a double win in Oak Mountain, taking all 120 points from the full distance and Short Track races. Belgium was another uncharacteristically low scoring outing for the Frenchman with a 12th place finish in the full distance and 6th in the Short Track.
He’ll now need to pull something from the fire to stay ahead of the other Frenchman who will be looking to make moves in the next 2 races, but if there’s anybody who can do it, it’s Arthur Serrières.
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The older of the Forissier brothers sits just 9 points behind Arthur Serrières, but perhaps not for long. He has only raced 2 stops so far and all but cleaned house in both of them. He opened the series with an emphatic win in Taiwan and got a near perfect score again in Belgium where he came in second behind Forissier junior in the Full Distance and took maximum points in the Short Track.
Something is brewing with the Forissier brothers. It feels like a World Champion title is coming, it’s just impossible to know from which of the two it will come.
If Arthur Forissier continues to race the way he is, he will quickly leapfrog to the top of the leaderboard when the number of races even out. Of all the male athletes he is the closest to having a perfect score at this point, giving him the highest odds of taking the Cup.
“My goal in the Czech Republic is to achieve at least one victory and one podium finish. There is a lot of pressure, and I need to race without making mistakes, but I know I am capable of it!”
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Michele Bonacina has some of the fastest swim times of the series, constantly swimming at the front of the race, if not leading it in the water. But the Italian will need to see improvements on the bike and the run if he is to keep his place in the top 5. Like Serrières and Sloth Nielsen, Bonacina has raced all 3 stops so far, picking up a 6th place finish in Taiwan, a 7th and a 9th for the Full Distance races in Oak Mountain and Belgium respectively, and a 3rd and a 7th for the Short Track races.
“I started very well in Taiwan so I tried to stay in the top positions of the World Cup and till now I’ve found success in this.”
Bonacina will need to see some podium finishes to keep his place in the top 5, but after doing exactly that with a first place finish at XTERRA Lake Scanno just over a week ago, we may just see more from the Shark in this second half of the series.
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At 38 years old there is still nobody who can command a race quite like Ruben ‘The Boss’ Ruzafa. The Spaniard has been first off the bike in 9 straight World Championships and still pushes the front pack harder than many of them would like. Arthur Forissier probably said it best after the race in Taiwan, “When Ruben arrived we all had to go two times faster because he’s the King.”
Ruzafa sits in 5th, but like Forissier he has raced fewer races than the other 3 in the top 5 and has set a good foundation that could see him leapfrog a few places later in the series.
“My goal in every race is to try to win or to be near the top. Every race is different, and the performance of each triathlete is unknown in this first race of the summer, so I have to be ready for all race situations and manage it as best I can.”
Ruzafa came agonisingly close to opening the series with a win, losing out to Forissier in the final few kilometres. But to back that up with a 3rd place finish in unquestionably the toughest elite field so far at the European Championship in Belgium, it just goes to show how much of a dominant force Ruben Ruzafa still is. The Spaniard has been vocal about how he’s waited years for an XTERRA World Cup, and The Boss will no doubt be ready to open the gas and empty the tank come Czech and Germany.
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