Roger Serrano from Spain and Brigitta Poor from Hungary captured the elite titles at the XTERRA European Tour season-opener in Malta today. It’s the third XTERRA Malta win in a row for Serrano and the fourth straight for Poor.
Max Chane from France exited the swim with Serrano and had the faster transition time to get on the bike with the lead. Chane was on fire today, maybe a little too much, at 22 years old he will need to work on finding a good pace. On the other hand, the veteran Serrano knows exactly what he is doing and won this race for the third time, even with a big crash on the bike costing him maybe more than a minute.
Chane came out first from T1 and just hammered the bike, with Serrano a few seconds behind.
Brice Daubord started the bike with Serrano but was not able to follow him, however, he quickly found two good bikers to ride with; Maximilan Sasserath from Germany and François Carloni from France. Veit Hoenle from Germany also started the bike up front but was not able to catch this train.
After one loop Chane was 1’45’’ in front of Serrano who had a bad crash on the first loop.
About 35-seconds behind Serrano, François Carloni, Maximilian Sasserath and Daubord were all riding together.
At the bike to run transition Chane was still in the lead with the exact same 1’45’’ gap to Serrano, followed by Carloni and Daubord. Sasserath lost this group at the end and was 15-seconds back.
At this point of the race, knowing all those athletes, I was thinking the best chance was for Daubord, and Chane on the podium with Serrano maybe, but this race was unpredictable! Del Corral came to transition in 6th position with 1’10’’ on the second place so almost three minutes behind Chane.
After 5km on the run, Chane was still leading, but was losing time and more important he was quite white and not looking good.
Behind him in second place was Sasserath, who this time was my first choice for the win. But Serrano was right behind and the surprise for me was Carloni, as he is not as fast a runner as he can ride, but he was looking solid.
With no more Daubord at this point, my prediction was really wrong, in fact Daubord told us that he had an injury and would not be 100% on the run. But I was an athlete, so I know we cannot trust them, as many times, they finish strong despite what they say. This time, however, it was true, and Daubord didn’t even finish because of that injury. So now Del Corral was back in 5th and closing the gap, and I started to think about him on the podium too.
Finally, knowing this race perfectly, Serrano was able to push at the right time, passing Chane who was in very bad shape.
Del Corral had an amazing run to finish in second place. “I’m very happy to be on the podium after about five years without racing XTERRA, that makes me confident for the next races,” said Del Corral.
Sasserath got third, Carloni managed to stay in fourth and they were both happy with that today.
The women’s race unfolded like many other races we’ve had in the past with Nicole Walters leading the swim, Brigitta Poor taking a big lead during the bike and staying there, Carina Wasle posting a consistent race to finish in second, and Helena Karaskova coming from well behind in the swim to ultimately finish in third.
The race might have been different towards the front had Walters and Morgane Riou not suffered flat tires on the bike that removed both from contention for podium spots.
At the swim-to-bike transition Walters had about 45-seconds on Diane Luethi from Switzerland and Ine Couckuyt from Belgium. Poor was about one-minute behind with Wasle, while Riou Carina right behind. Riou was about 2:20 back and Karaskova was more than three-minutes behind the swim leaders.
As for the weather, it was a perfect day, and we were lucky not to have wind storms like we experienced yesterday.
After one loop of bike (15km) Poor was more than two-minutes ahead of Walters, with Wasle in third, Luethi in fourth, and Karaskova in fifth. At this point Riou already had a flat, and she explained “I dropped my chain twice and started losing control. I went too fast on the next downhill and paid dearly for this mistake. I was feeling strong today and when I will finally got my new bike, I was sure I would be able to fight more with those girls.”
For Walters, her flat came on the second loop. We will have to wait to see the true results of all her winter improvements, especially coming off a three-week training camp in Lanzaroth, until next week’s race at XTERRA Cyprus.
By the end of the bike Poor had a solid lead, but still she pushed all the way to the finish line and won here for the 4th time in a row with a time of 2:42:29, almost five minutes ahead of Wasle.
Wasle, who was coming off a victory at XTERRA South Africa, was strong again today and finish second.
In 3rd was Karaskova, also quite happy with her position. “I knew my bike legs would not be there today after my long swim run last week in Croatia, so I’m very happy to be in the podium,” she said.
Riou was fourth and Maud Golsteyn finished 5th but was still positive. “The women’s elite field was strong today, and to finish top 5 is very good and I will take it for sure,” she said.
MALE ELITE:
1. Roger Serrano, ESP 2:22:22
2. Victor Del Corral, ESP 2:22:28
3. Maximilian Sasserath, GER 2:23:20
4. Francois Carloni, FRA 2:24:05
5. Maxim Chane, FRA 2:25:20
FEMALE ELITE:
1. Brigitta Poor, HUN 2:42:29
2. Carina Wasle, AUT 2:47:14
3. Helena Karaskova-Erbenova, CZE 2:49:01
4. Morgane Riou, FRA 2:54:20
5. Maud Golsteyn, NED 3:01:12