Legh borrows bike and wins
Daylesford Victoria, better known for its’ mineral spas and weekend retreats, made a great backdrop for the Australian leg of the Xterra Global Tour. With some very fast triathletes looking to try their hand at Xterra and also have a crack at the National Title on offer, the day proved to be an absolute winner and hopefully a staple on the calender. But the pre-race drama happened early for race favorite Chris Legh. Upon arrival to the venue he snapped his frame leaving him without a bike. The ever-calm Legh managed to find one from one of the sponsors and was seen walking into the transition area with it in parts prior to racing!
The pre-race talk centred around Chris Legh and Leon Griffin. These two athletes are at different points in their careers, they proved to be the ones to watch on this day. No stranger to Xterra racing, Legh has also shown his diversity by placing 4th at the Xterra World Championships in Maui in 2007. The pure Xterra racers had Jason Chalker and Mark Leishman as their flag flyers who no doubt would want to crash the ‘part-timers’ party. The women’s event had a smaller field and this was headlined by former professional cyclist turned Xterra racer Susie Wood. 17 year old prodigy Meg Russell was the hope for a local victory.
The day dawned wet and cool. Water temperatures were rumoured to have dropped throughout the week sending a collective chill through the main field. As the showers came and went throughout the morning there was plenty of action with the support races humming through the bush. Trail running and mountain biking were run in the morning with feedback coming back from the mountain bikers that the course was becoming a little slick. The Xterra racers must have been rubbing their hands together at this prospect as for sure their superior trail riding skills would come to the fore.
At exactly 12.30pm the gun went off to release the professional field onto their adventure. The wind had dropped to nothing meaning a fast swim was assured. Leading the pro field out of the water were Jamie Rhodes, Sam Hume and Ben Allen. The water temps meant that T1 was a little slower with some numb fingers. Griffin came out in 6th place with Legh staring at an early race deficit of nearly a minute with Chalker behind him not having the greatest of days. Wunderkid Meg Russell lead out the female field and with typical speed went through transition like a hurricane.
The trail ride that was supposed to sort out the part timers proved to be a non event. Chris Legh had decided that this was an ideal opportunity to test his legs for Wildflower and took to the bike course. In doing so he also took to the rest of the male professionals and by the time the bike leg ended he was a clear minute up on his rivals. Griffin was doing likewise but found it hard to stick with the flying Legh. “He came flying past me about 10 kilometres into the bike and I tried to hold his wheel for as long as I could but he was gone and once he was gone we were all racing for second.” Said Griffin post race. While Legh was doing the damage on his borrowed bike Susie Wood was showing the field a clean set of wheels. Wood is an outstanding rider and handled the conditions magnificently. She was making a huge dent into the chasers. Richards, Russell and Tester were all feeling the pinch as the race was slipping away from them.
The run leg was a formality as Legh went about making sure he stayed out in front. The lead bike was having to haul it around the course so that it was not caught by a flying Legh. Legh ran in with the fastest run time and took the national title in his first serious race of the season. Susie Wood was not having it all her own way on run. She was strong on the bike was fading. Russell was running her down with each loop of the run. But the damage was done and Russell ran out of trail in pursuit of Wood. Amanda Richards came in third while Jarad Kohler had a great back end of the race to finish in third place.
Legh said after not having the best race in Geelong (70.3) meant he needed to have a hit out before going back over to the States. "I checked out the course last Sunday and realised it would be perfect for me. I knew the strongest athlete out there was going to win as the course was not that technical." Legh proved that with some impressive speed on the day.
The Xterra World Tour heads off to New Zealand next weekend.... If you get the chance to compete or watch a race it is well worth it.
