Josiah Middaugh and Suzie Snyder took home the elite titles at the XTERRA Oak Mountain off-road triathlon in Shelby County, Alabama this morning.
The fourth of 10 stops on the 2016 XTERRA Pan America Tour had all the right ingredients … calm, clean, warm water to swim in, perfect racing weather, superb trail conditions, and great competition in both the amateur and elite fields.
Middaugh, the reigning XTERRA World Champion from Colorado, came out of the 1.5-kilometer swim in eighth position nearly three minutes behind Mauricio Mendez, the 20-year-old phenom from Mexico.
Once on the bike he quickly worked his way into the fourth spot, then passed Branden Rakita and Karsten Madsen about two-thirds of the way up the big climb, but didn’t reel in Mendez until a few miles before the bike-to-run transition.
“Really good racing,” said Middaugh at the awards ceremony flanked by Mendez who finished 2nd, Madsen who was 3rd, Rakita in 4th, and Kieran McPherson in 5th. “All these guys up here, I came out of the water behind all of them. And as I went by them on the bike I kept asking them ‘Where is Mauricio’ and they couldn’t tell me anything, just that they hadn’t seen him. I was working harder and harder the whole day, and finally caught him towards the end of the bike and it was just a battle on the run to stay a few steps ahead of him.”
Mendez even put up the fastest run split, but Middaugh held on for the win in 2:19:17, 11-seconds in front of him. For Mendez, who was fourth at XTERRA Worlds last year, the result proved his bike handling skills have improved dramatically.
“I know my weakest point is the bike and I’ve been working on it, and happy to see it improve,” said Mendez. “This bike course, I have so much respect for it. Two years ago here everybody was catching me, so today I pushed as hard as I could. When I saw Josiah coming behind me I lost my focus just for a few seconds and crashed into a tree.”
Middaugh took advantage and gave himself a little cushion going into the run.
“I knew I was close to Josiah and on the second lap I saw him in front of me, but he knows how to race. It’s amazing to race him,” said Mendez.
“It feels good when it’s a battle like that, it feels rewarding” said Middaugh, who won XTERRA Tahiti last weekend.
Behind those two Madsen and Rakita kept pushing each other on the bike.
“Things went really well today,” said Madsen, who had a bad crash last year that sent him to the hospital. “That was the lowest low-point for me, laying on a med tent, so my main goal was to dial it back a little and ride clean today. It worked out, it was a complete race for me and I’m really happy.”
Rakita was also pleased with his day, saying “It was good. Felt like I rode well all the way through so happy with that. On this course you really have to push the last four miles. Karsten and I were really close and that helped us keep pushing. I was happy with the swim, disappointed we couldn’t hold on to Mauricio’s feet, but he’s just got so much talent. I thought we might reel him in on the bike but his bike handling skills have really improved. He works hard. Then I ran as hard as I could, because I still had Chris and Cody behind me, so I was running scared.”
Kiwi Kieran McPherson had a solid day all the way around to take the 5th spot, just 14-seconds behind Rakita. He also won an XTERRA Wetsuit by chugging a bottle of Gatorade faster than a few dozen others in the post-race shenanigans.
SNYDER WIRE TO WIRE
Last year Suzie Snyder was in the midst of her best season as a pro, fresh off wins at XTERRA New Zealand and the XTERRA East Championship and the odds-on favorite to win XTERRA Mexico. Then she fractured her pelvis pre-riding and has been recovering ever since.
“It’s good to be back,” she said. “My first race back since July. It was a hard reminder on how hard this sport is but I couldn’t be happier to be back here racing again.”
Snyder had an incredible swim that was three minutes faster than the second-best woman, posted the fastest bike split, and had the third-best run to take the tape in 2:43:57, more than four-minutes ahead of runner-up Maia Ignatz.
“Hardest I’ve pushed myself since Beaver Creek last year, so it hurt really bad,” said Snyder. “I had a good swim. I’ve been swimming with Matt Balzer, and in a master’s class so my swim is improving and I needed that today. On the run I was afraid I went too hard. I went out too fast because I knew there were fast girls behind me and I didn’t want it to come down to a battle. I was trying to get out of sight.”
For Maia Ignatz her second-place finish was a career-best.
“I’m so happy. Thrilled with how things went today. I was able to stay upright, I rode well, I ran well, but I can’t say I swam well,” smiled Ignatz, who came out of the water in 4th but more than three minutes behind Snyder.
Kara LaPoint was third out of the water, passed Maggie Rusch early on the bike to move into 2nd and held that spot until but Ignatz caught her early on the run.
“I couldn’t hang on to Maia, she is such a good runner,” said LaPoint. “My goal was top three, and the race shaked out pretty similar to what I thought would happen. I’m happy with it.”
Debby Sullivan had a strong race all the way around to finish in fourth and XTERRA Brazil Champion Sabrina Gobbo rounded out the top five.
Top 5 Female
1 Suzie Snyder, USA 2:43:57
2 Maia Ignatz, USA 2:48:12
3 Kara LaPoint, USA 2:51:25
4 Debby Sullivan, USA 3:00:31
5 Sabrina Gobbo, BRA 3:04:35
Top 5 Male
1 Josiah Middaugh, USA 2:19:17
2 Mauricio Mendez, MEX 2:19:28
3 Karsten Madsen, CAN 2:23:49
4 Branden Rakita, USA 2:25: