Arthur Forissier from France and Brigitta Poor from Hungary were both victorious and captured the 9th edition of XTERRA Switzerland, in a very exciting race in the beautiful Vallé de Joux in the Canton de Vaud.
This is the third victory here for Arthur. He had his first win here in 2015 in a major XTERRA, then the following year he ended up in hospital during the ETU European Championship, due to a 34° body temperature on a cold and rainy day. But last year he came back to win again. With perfect conditions just like today in front of Ruben, proving he can be one of the best XTERRA athlete’s in Europe and soon I think in the world.
He exited the Brenet lake in 10th position, some 1’40 back from today’s and the usual swim leader, Roger Serrano. “I had a really fast swim, faster than usual and I managed to be in a very good position after exiting the water” said Forissier.
However, Arthur was in a perfect position as he made his way up and was soon to be with his team mate Arthur Serrieres too. Meanwhile, Marchello Ugazio was few seconds in front and Theo Dupras, another Team Tvert Team mate was few seconds behind. So this was the perfect group to try to work together to try and catch the Spaniard who was alone out in the front, especially when you have the advantage of 3 very strong members of the same team. But the race will not always be like we would predict. After one lap on this quite flat and very fast MTB bike loop, Roger was still leading with about 45 seconds.
At this stage though, the chasing group behind was only composed of 3 athletes, Marcello Ugazio, Arthur Forissier, and of course, Theo Dupras. Arthur Serrieres had dropped off the pace a little, and was not with them, but in another group more than a minute behind - perhaps not completely recovered from his big crash in Belgium two weeks ago. Meanwhile, Xavier Dafflon, who was also contesting the Swiss National Championship race, had already lost a little less than 5’ on Roger, but was having a fantastic bike leg, to put in the fastest bike split of the day.
With the prospect of the run leg fast approaching, at the end of the bike, Roger was still leading, but had lost a few more seconds to the chasing trio. As he exited the second transition, the time gap had come down sufficiently enough to have Forissier and Theo only 35’’ behind at this very exciting stage of the race.
After the first run loop around the lake, Forissier had already passed Roger, and was running very strong. "As he passed me, I could see that it was in no doubt that he would put in the fastest run split of the day and by almost one minute!" said Lebrun
However, Roger who had been so strong up until the run, explained to us at the finish that he had a small foot injury earlier in the week. This unfortunately meant that he had back off the gas to reduce the impact on his foot, but miraculously held onto a brilliant 2nd place. Ugazio, the Italian who put in a fabulous second fastest run split, finished a fine 3rd.
For the women’s race, just as for the men, it was very close competition right through to the end. Despite a below average swim, Nicole Walters was first out of the water as usual. Brigitta being less than one minute behind showed that she was feeling good and was hopeful of a good day. Carina who has had some brilliant swim leg’s this year was quite far back. Unfortunately she got kicked quite hard on the face by a passing age grouper and this was very painful to her head. But after a little time to recover on the bike leg from the bash to her face, she started to move back up the field to try to regain her lost time. Then third out of the water was Diane Luethi from Switzerland, she too was in search of the Swiss National Championship title. Helena Karaskova, whom was one of the favorites, lost a whole 4 minutes.
After the first bike loop Nicole was still leading with Brigitta right behind. "Knowing the course, the athletes condition, I was sure that we would see a great competition between these two women today, and they didn’t disappoint us at all" said Lebrun.
However, Carina was still in the game, not far back and making great progress despite her bad experience in the swim. Helena worked super hard to come back on the bike, and in the process, produced the best bike split of the day!. Angela Niklaus was very strong on the bike and had overtaken Diane Luethi, to move into the lead of the Swiss National Championship. Unfortunately, Morgane Riou had a bad crash and was not able to sustain a high intensity anymore. By this time her head had dropped and her drive to reproduce a top result as before, had sadly gone.
Approaching T2, and finishing the 27 km MTB loop, Brigitta was back in the lead with Nicole very close and on her shoulder. So now at long last after so much previous bad luck at this race, the hungarian was in a fabulous position to take the win as she is such a strong runner.
"It’s my 5th or 6th time at XTERRA Switzerland, but this race never went well for me. I was always disappointed but this time everything was perfect from the start to the finish. I am very happy with my win here today” said Poor
But the threat could still come from behind, as Carina was less than 1’30’’ down. But maybe her head was still not right, as her normally very fast run just wasn’t going to happen today, and on the 2nd loop she faded to concede a very creditable 3rd place indeed.
But she has continued her fantastic string of results, and has had 6 podium places out of 6 races! Brigitta took her 4th race of the season after Malta, Cyprus and Portugal. Nicole finish a well creditatable second, with her excellent fifth podium out of 6 races.
ELITE MALE:
1 Arthur Forissier, FRA 2:10:56
2 Roger Serrano, ESP 2:12:47
3 Marcello Ugazio, ITA 2:13:00
4 Arthur Serrieres , FRA 2:16:06
5 Theo Dupras, FRA 2:16:16
ELITE FEMALE:
1 Brigitta Poor, HUN 2:34:34
2 Nicole Walters, GBR 2:35:51
3 Carina Wasle, AUT 2:36:40
4 Helena Karaskova-Erbenova, CZE 2:37:00
5 Loanne Duvoisin, SUI 2:38:13