Reigning XTERRA European Tour Champions Ruben Ruzafa of Spain and Brigitta Poor from Hungary captured the fourth-annual XTERRA Portugal Championship race in Golega this afternoon.
The win is the 27th of Ruzafa’s career, his fourth of the season, fourth straight in Portugal, and third-in-a-row on the European Tour. For Poor, it’s her third win of the year and in the other two races she finished runner-up to Helena Erbenova.
In the men’s race Ruben Ruzafa broke away from a pack of four at about 7km into the bike and never looked back, crossing the line with a winning time of 2:33:46.
Yeray Luxem and Francois Carloni were together for much of the bike, however, Luxem pulled away on the run for a solid 2nd-place finish, with Carloni two-minutes back in third, last year’s overall amateur XTERRA World Champ turned pro Xavier Dafflon in fourth and Xavier Jove Riart in fifth.
In the women’s race it was all Brigitta Poor right from the start. Her strong swim gave her a lead she would never relinquish, and she crossed the line in 3:00:48, more than three-minutes ahead of runner-up Carina Wasle.
Helena Erbenova, who won this race last year, came in third at 3:05:43, with Maud Golsteyn in fourth and Ladina Buss in 5th.
Elite Female:
1 Ruben Ruzafa, ESP 2:33:46
2 Yeray Luxem, BEL 2:37:23
3 Francois Carloni, FRA 2:39:02
4 Xavier Dafflon, SUI 2:39:41
5 Xavier Jové, ESP 2:40:25
Elite Female:
1 Brigitta Poór, HUN 3:00:48
2 Carina Wasle, AUT 3:04:18
3 Helena Erbenová, CZE 3:05:43
4 Maud Golsteyn, NED 3:13:08
5 Ladina Buss, SUI 3:13:23