firstoffthebike.com - Races

First timer gets it right at Xterra Maui

“I decided to do this race two months ago after talking with (fellow countryman and 2003/04 XTERRA World Champ) Eneko Llanos,” said the current Spanish mountain biking champion. “I didn’t know I could do so well, but I thought if I didn’t lose too much time on the swim I would be able to catch up on the bike and hopefully hold on during the run.”

That’s exactly how it played out. Ruzafa, who only started swimming a year ago, came out of the swim more than two minutes behind a tight pack of leaders – Brent McMahon, Craig Evans, Branden Rakita, Eneko Llanos, Olivier Marceau, Seth Wealing, Hektor Llanos, Franky Batelier, and Conrad Stoltz – but was able to work his way to the front of the pack by about mile 14 on the bike and never looked back.

Early on, this race showed all the signs of a Stoltz world championship run. The “Caveman” was out of the water with the leaders, passed everyone by the fourth mile of the bike where he had already put 30 seconds on Marceau, Dan Hugo, Batelier, and Eneko Llanos. From there he extended the gap, and was up 1:30 by mile 10 and with less than two miles left of heavy climbing before “The Plunge” steep downhill section where Stoltz’ is at his best, it looked like he was well on his way to a 4th World Title.

“I felt really good today, best I’ve felt in a long time. I was relaxed and riding really fast on the technical stuff, and even had quite a bit in the tank for the run, but then it came down to luck,” said Stoltz, who got a slow-leak somewhere around mile 13 or so that forced him to stop, repair, and watch as Ruzafa went by.

By the time Stoltz entered T2 and was five minutes and 10 places back, best he could do was a) enjoy the ocean views, b) make sure his fiancée Amber Monforte, who took a nasty spill and had a shovel full of gravel embedded in her shoulder, was o.k., c) drop words of encouragement and some energy gel to a friend, and d) cross the line graciously in 12th place giving high-fives to the spectators that lined the finish chute.

“The Euro guys were flying,” and “new faces and stiffer competition” were common sentiments from the veteran XTERRA bunch. Aussie Chris Legh was 10th.

DIBENS DOUBLES XTERRA WORLD TITLE COUNT

Dibens dominated the women’s race here in Maui for the second straight year, taking the lead from the very start of the swim all the way through the finish line with a winning time of 3:03:57, a full minute ahead of runner-up Danelle Kabush from Canada. Dibens is just the second woman to win the XTERRA World Championship in back-to-back years (following Melanie McQuaid’s 2005 and 2006 titles).

“I think this one was harder, it definitely took more out of me,” said the former All-American swimmer at Louisiana State University and 2004 Olympic triathlete. “I was hurting out there on the run and the heat really got to me, and just before the finish a guy passed me and said that Danelle was right behind so I had to sprint to the finish and that was murder. Despite that, XTERRA is awesome. I just wished I would have got into this earlier. It’s just something where everyone who tries it loves it, and then it’s just plain addictive.”

Melanie McQuaid was supposed to provide Dibens stiffest competition, but “some kind of intestinal thing” turned out to be her chief rival and after regurgitating over and over in the early portions of the run, there was nothing left to do but wait for next year.

“I want a mulligan, can we race tomorrow,” said the three-time World Champ. “I tried to keep going but just kept catapulting backwards, it was the worst. I only thank goodness that there were two other Canadians that pulled up the slack for me today.”

Top 6 Pro Men plus prizemoney

1. Ruben Ruzafa 2:37:36 $25,000
2. Michael Weiss 2:38:10 $15,000
3. Brent McMahon 2:40:56 $8,000
4. Mike Vine 2:41:37 $5,000
5. Olivier Marceau 2:42:01 $3,000
6. Eneko Llanos 2:42:49 $1,750

Top 6 Pro Women plus prizemoney

1. Julie Dibens 3:03:57 $25,000
2. Danelle Kabush 3:04:56 $15,000
3. Shonny Vanlandingham 3:10:49 $8,000
4. Renata Bucher 3:11:06 $5,000
5. Christine Jeffrey 3:11:50 $3,000
6. Jennifer Smith 3:15:59 $1,750

Fastest swim (1-mile): Brent McMahon (18:13), Linda Gallo (18:16) taken out of T1
Fastest bike (20-miles): Ruben Ruzafa (1:30:25), Shonny Vanlandingham (1:48:12)
Fastest run (7-miles): Brent McMahon (43:18), Danelle Kabush (49:55)