Utah shines in XTERRA Finale

Thunder and lightning on Friday gave way to sunshine and smiles on Saturday and Sunday at the XTERRA Pan America / USA Championship triathlon and XTERRA National Championship half-marathon trail races at Snowbasin Resort near Ogden, Utah. At Saturday’s tri Mauricio Mendez from Mexico and Lesley Paterson from Scotland captured the elite races. More than 600 racers from 30+ states and 15 countries took on the challenge which combined a one-mile swim in Pineview Reservoir (4,900-feet elevation), with an 18-mile mountain bike leg that climbed more than 3,000-feet to the top of Sardine Peak (7,300-feet elevation) and 7-mile trail run featuring another 700-feet of climbing on trails in the Wasatch Range.

At Saturday’s tri Mauricio Mendez from Mexico and Lesley Paterson from Scotland captured the elite races.  More than 600 racers from 30+ states and 15 countries took on the challenge which combined a one-mile swim in Pineview Reservoir (4,900-feet elevation), with an 18-mile mountain bike leg that climbed more than 3,000-feet to the top of Sardine Peak (7,300-feet elevation) and 7-mile trail run featuring another 700-feet of climbing on trails in the Wasatch Range.

In the men’s race Mendez came out of the water with Australian Ben Allen, took the lead during the swim-to-bike transition and led the rest of the way, taking the tape in 2:22:50, nearly two-minutes ahead of last year’s winner Josiah Middaugh of Colorado.

“Today was just perfect. I mean, I felt good on the swim, we worked at having a good pace. When we were out of the swim, and we noticed we had a big gap – Ben Allen and me – I was just feeling confident about it and when we hit the dirt I did an attack and I felt great,” said Mendez, the 21-year-old reigning XTERRA World Champion.

“I was just attacking the whole time because I knew that I’d have big sharks behind me and they could catch me at any time so I was trying to push as hard as possible. Then when I hit the run, and someone told me I was leading by one minute I just knew that, I mean, I am so used to chasing Josiah the whole time and now that I had him behind me I knew that I had made a good effort on the bike but now I was worried to be caught by him.”

The 2015 XTERRA World Champion Josiah Middaugh came out of the water about 1:40 behind Mendez, made up 30 seconds of that by posting the fastest bike split of the day (1:24:37), but couldn’t close the gap on the run.

“Mauricio was out in front from the get go and he put an attack early on the bike and you know I did everything I could to try to try to reel him back in but I just wasn’t making back the time very quick,” said Middaugh, who overtook Branden Rakita to win the XTERRA Pan America Tour title with his second-place showing today.  “I was pushing hard but not making the time.  Hats off to him, he was riding really strong and had just a killer pace up that climb and it was everything I could do to just keep it close.”

Asked if he thought he could catch Mendez on the run, Middaugh added, “Yeah, I thought you never know what can happen. Maybe somebody gets tired or pushed too hard on the bike but Mauricio, I’ve never seen him give up a lead so I knew it was a tall ask but I thought if I kept my head down and ran hard I’d make back a little bit of time.”

Bradley Weiss, two weeks removed from winning the XTERRA European Championship in Denmark, rode with Middaugh practically the whole bike and was second into T2 just ahead of Middaugh.

“Coming into altitude I knew it was going to be tough to reach that top 5% you need racing against these guys,” said Weiss.  “I had no pressure on myself and I’ve never been so relaxed before a race. I was super chill. Coming in with that relaxed mindset did help me a little, but still the swim was such a shamble. Swimming at altitude you can’t breathe. So, I just tried to limit my losses a bit but I was within a minute of the leaders so I’m pretty happy with that. Considering I didn’t feel like I was moving very well. Onto the bike I settled into a pretty good pace and then Josiah caught me super early so I was like quite surprised about that. When he came past I thought ‘OK this isn’t too bad I can hang on to this’ and then we rode together all the way to the end. Then he caught a rear flat on the last descent so that slowed him down a bit, that’s how I got past, otherwise we would have come in together which we did basically.”

Weiss finished third nearly two minutes behind Middaugh.

“Starting the run, I felt like my run legs were pretty descent,” said Weiss. “I had a little bit of a lead on Josiah going up and I thought hey, maybe second place is in the cards but then once he got going, I was like, OK. I’ll settle for third today. And Mauricio coming from Mexico City had been training at 3000 meters so he’s very well acclimatized to altitude. It’s always going to be tough to race against them but it’s very promising leading into Maui.”

In fourth was another young-gun, a 20-year-old from Taupo by the name of Kyle Smith and in fifth was Ben Allen from Australia.

In the women’s race Paterson, a two-time XTERRA World Champion, was the sixth elite female out of the swim, passed all five riders in front of her by mile five of the bike and never looked back.  Her winning time of 2:51:13 was a full seven-minutes ahead of runner-up Jacqui Allen from Great Britain.

“I came out of the water in second place, two-minutes down, got up into second place just after Wheeler Canyon, probably about half a mile into the next trail.  I passed Julie about another mile after that but she’s strong, you know and kept with me for a bit,” said Paterson.

The “Scottish Rocket” posted the fastest bike and run splits of the day, and looked dominant.

“Yeah man, I was really going for it today,” said Paterson.  “The bike felt great, I attacked the whole time and just went for it. I felt strong so wanted to push it and keep those girls honest. And the conditions were just supreme. That descent was amazing on the bike, and I’ll tell ya, if I didn’t have to run I might have enjoyed that.”

Julie Baker, who works a full-time as a soil scientist, had a brilliant race and the lead through the first five miles of the bike.

“I was in front for a little bit which was fun, but I kept waiting for Lesley to steamroll by me,” she said.  “Lesley came by me by the bridges at mile five I guess, and she opened up a little gap on me and then on that little rocky mountain hill I caught her again. Then as soon as we started up again, she took it away. She just goes insanely hard, and she breathes like a freight train coming by and I don’t know how she goes that fast and that hard for so long. It’s incredible.”

Baker then had Jacqui Allen on her wheel about 15K into the bike and said “I kept her in sight for quite a while on the bike but I didn’t see her on the run.  I was hoping because I think I’m a comparable runner to her so I tried to stay close enough but then when I started running I was cramping so I had to dial it back a little.”

The former amateur XTERRA World Champ gives a lot of credit to her coach, none other than Josiah Middaugh.

“Oh my god, that was awesome, I’m super stoked about today,” said Baker.  “That was a really strong field this year, and I have to thank Josiah for being my coach this year. I’ve learned a lot about bike training and how to balance everything. On the bike, I’m fitter than I’ve ever been.”

Jacqui Allen is also in fine form and finished in second-place about one-minute ahead of Baker.

“I felt really, really good, like I got past this altitude stuff,” said Allen.  “I was pretty confident going into the race actually. I was on the course the other day and felt good and I probably rode it faster in practice than I did in the race a few years ago.  Today I had a really good swim. It took a bit of time on the bike to get going and Julie passed me early on and then Lesley came past and after that, I got into my groove and passed Julie back and towards the end I could push on a lot more, I was out of the saddle, really ripping it. I love the downhill here, and then on the run I said in my prerace thing that as soon as I got off the first hill I’d smile, so I just kept reminding myself of that. But that’s the longest, hardest downhill I’ve ever done I think. But it was amazing. I felt awesome.”

Suzie Snyder was solid in all three disciplines to finish in fourth and secure her second-straight XTERRA Pan America Tour championship, and Morgane Riou from France rounded out the top five.

Middaugh and Baker earned XTERRA USA Champion honors as well today for being the top Americans in the race