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XTERRA Heads Back to Northern California May 14-15

This May 14-15 XTERRA heads back to Northern California with a championship race for the first time since Half Moon Bay hosted the XTERRA West Champs in 2002.

The new spot is Santa Cruz - just an hour's drive south from Half Moon Bay along historic Highway 1.  The new name is the XTERRA Pacific Championship.

Dave Nicholas, the managing director of the XTERRA World Tour, has been working behind the scenes to bring XTERRA to Santa Cruz for more than a year-and-a-half and thinks the XTERRA Tribe is going to love what they find in this super cool city known for its great surfing, majestic redwood forests, and slimy banana slugs.

"Santa Cruz is one of the premier surfing meccas in the world, and on any given day you can cruise along West Cliff drive and see tons of surfers waiting for waves," said Nicholas, in explaining what's unique about Santa Cruz.  "The Pier is famous for having loads of restaurants and hundreds of Sea Lions who bask in the sun and live beneath the pier barking and raising hell.  Alongside the pier you'll find the beach boardwalk and famous Big Dipper - an iconic wooden roller coaster.  The boardwalk was built in 1907 and still operates year round with dozens of rides including a pipe organ carousel, carnival attractions and eateries.  It is so original the entire boardwalk is listed as a Historical landmark."

While the pre-and-post race sightseeing options are off the charts, so too is the course itself. The cold-water, wetsuit legal swim will take place right alongside the pier on Cowell's Beach and feature two 750-meter laps with a beach shuffle in-between.

After the swim racers will face a fairly long run uphill to the swim-to-bike transition at Depot Park. The first part of the bike course is on the road along West Cliff drive headed towards Wilder Ranch State Park - where the real mountain biking begins.  The course at Wilder starts with a whole lot of climbing, not especially technical, but loose and steep in places.  Riders will find a combination of open roads and single track trails that lead to a steep and rocky downhill.  The more skilled rider will make lots of time on this descent. At the bottom of Baldwin Loop riders will climb again to just over 800' before getting into some neat trails near the top of the park. 

"From there we have some very technical, twisty single track downhill with a few places most folks will walk; some stream crossings with short, steep climbs and then a blistering fast downhill back to the Wilder Ranch tunnel and T2," said Nicholas.  "Total distance of the bike is roughly 19 miles with 14 miles on trails at Wilder.  I rode about 70% of the course and it is superb. Well, actually, of that 70% I rode about 80% and walked the rest as there were some very steep climbs and a few treacherous downhills."

The run is not very technical but perhaps the most scenic of any 10k on earth.  Runners will have to drop off a cliff on a very narrow trail to a beach, cross the beach and scramble up the other side to return to the bluffs.  Depending on the tides and surf, they may get wet!  The run back takes athletes past artichoke, pumpkin and rather smelly Brussels sprout fields with a wicked diversion from the flats about 1/4 mile from the finish.  The run will be fast but keep a lookout for the famous on-shore winds.

Another thing for racers to keep a look-out for is all the uber-talented XTERRA locals.  Among  the area greats you'll find XTERRA age group World Champs like Laura Home, Kathy Frank, Tim and Birgit Johnston - even Ned Overend has called Santa Cruz home.  Northern Cali is also where the sport of mountain biking originated and you can bet they've been refining the craft in Santa Cruz ever since.

In addition to Sunday's Pacific Championship race that will dish out $10,500 in prize money to elites, plus points in the America Tour and qualifying spots into the XTERRA World Championship for amateurs - XTERRA will also host a half-distance sport race and a new bike/run event dubbed "XTERRA Two" that combines a 13-mile mountain bike and a three-mile trail run.

On Saturday trail runners take the main stage with scenic 5km, 10km and 21km races that traverse the coastline from the bluffs to the beach.
To get a feel for just how fun this course is check out the unsolicited chatter about Wilder Ranch State Park on Yelp. http://www.yelp.com/biz/wilder-ranch-state-park-santa-cruz