Oak Mountain

Arthur Serrières Claims First Win and Alizée Paties Makes it 2 for 2

The French speedster is officially back to his winning ways but not without a fight, while Alizée Paties showed that Taiwan was no fluke with a dominant performance to make it two wins in a row.

To say that today’s race was manic would be an understatement. It began with Eric Lagerstrom blitzing the swim in just 19:43, putting almost 30 seconds on the “Shark” Michele Bonacina. Not content with that, the American went on to extend the gap to almost a minute on the first half of the bike, proving to be every inch the wild card we expected him to be in this race. But as so many predicted, it all came down to the run and, like so many times before, this is Serrières’ hunting ground. The Frenchman claimed his first win of the series in 2:25:30, just 22 seconds ahead of Lagerstrom and 54 seconds ahead of Jens Emil Sloth Nielsen in 3rd.

It was a very different picture in the women’s race where Alizée Paties had possibly her most dominant performance yet. Samantha Kinsford was first out the water, but not by far, and for almost half the bike loop the repeat of the Paties vs Billouin bike battle was on until Paties pulled away and the current champion suffered a mechanical that all but put her out of the race. From there Paties did not look back and took the tape nearly 5 minutes ahead of 2nd place Marta Menditto and Samantha Kingsford in 3rd.

Loanne Duvoisin and Arthur Serrières Claim the Short Track Win

Switzerlands’ Loanne Duvoisin made it known that she is still the name to beat on the short course after claiming the overall win of the 2022 XTERRA Short Track Series and the first Short Track race of the 2023 World Cup, while XTERRA Champion Arthur Serrières claimed the double win and maximum points at Stop #2 in Oak Mountain.

Duvoisin exited the water 15 seconds back but stamped her name on the race with the fastest bike and run splits of the day. Alizée Paties claimed second place to keep her name firmly at the top of the World Cup leaderboard while New Zealand’s Samantha Kingsford took third for her second podium of the weekend.  

"After a really bad day yesterday in the full-distance race it was really satisfying to come here today and get the win."

Arthur Serrières’ message that he is back in full force will have been heard loud and clear by the men’s division after claiming the full 120 World Cup points in Oak Mountain to put him in second place overall in the series. The top three, Arthur Serrières, Jens Emil Sloth Nielsen, and Michele Bonacina put on the kind of show that Short Track is designed to deliver, riding the last lap wheel to wheel and all coming into transition together. But Serrières was fastest out of transition and put his speed on the feet to work, claiming the win 17 seconds ahead of Jens Emil Sloth Nielsen in second and Bonacina in third.

Stop #2 ends with Jens Emil Sloth Nielsen in first place on the leaderboard and Arthur Serrières in second, making Stop #3 in Belgium - which will likely see the return of the Forissier brothers, Maxim Chané and Ruben Ruzafa -  undoubtedly one of the most high-pressure races of the series so far.