Stoltz, McQuaid Win XTERRA Mountain Championship
SNOWBASIN RESORT, UTAH – On a course that featured more than 3,000-feet of climbing on rocky off-road mountain trails Conrad Stoltz from South Africa and Melanie McQuaid from Canada showcased an astonishing level of fitness and skill to win the XTERRA Mountain Championship today.
In the men’s race Stoltz was playing cat-and-mouse and trading the lead spot with Canadian Mike Vine during the last half of the bike before pulling away on the final downhill and getting into the bike-to-run transition with a one-minute lead.
“Mike and I were battling back and forth on the bike and were even running alongside each other pushing our bikes uphill at one point. We traded leads all the way to the summit and I know what a great runner he is so I went flat out on the downhill, I was basically free falling down the side of this mountain,” said Stoltz.
Vine was able to make up some time on the run, but not enough as Stoltz, the 3-time XTERRA World Champ (and two-time Olympian), held on for a 31-second margin of victory.
“It was a battle out there and I was glad to catch up to him on the climbs but every time the trail flatted out he took off and was just gone,” said Vine, who won this race in 2006. “It was a good race for me and pretty exciting to duke it out with Conrad, that doesn’t happen very often.”
The men’s race at the front was the closest XTERRA has seen in a long time as Stoltz’ winning time of 2:21:32 was less than a minute faster than the next four racers with Vine coming in at 2:22:03, Brian Smith in 2:22:12 and last year’s race winner Seth Wealing in 2:22:22.
“It’s nice to be at the top of the mountain,” said Stoltz (pictured here, photo courtesy Don Karle/XTERRA). “This was a very important race for me as I’m trying to win my sixth Pro Series title and after the DNF in Richmond I needed the points here. I’ve had quite a few flats this year and flatted at this race the last two years so I made sure to use some extra strong tires, brought two cans of air and a couple spare tires. I wasn’t taking any chances.”
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