Maui, Hawaii - With cloud cover providing some cool temperatures and even a hint of rain, Canada’s Melanie McQuaid and France’s Nico Lebrun took out sterling victories at the tenth annual XTERRA world championship at Makena, Maui.

Melanie likes winning again.

Photo By Don Karle

McQuaid became the first woman in the race’s history to repeat as champion, defeating defending champion and arch-rival Jamie Whitmore of the U.S., who finished third on the day. Switzerland’s Sybille Matter, who led out of the water, took second in only her second race on Maui after a debut sixth place last year. McQuaid, a former professional mountain biker, earned her first XTERRA win in 2003 and finished second to Whitmore last year. This year she battled Whitmore nose to nose all year long to finish second in the XTERRA U.S. points series.

“I just had an amazing day,” an exuberant McQuaid said at the finish at the race’s new home at the Maui Prince at Makena Resort. “It’s just so cool to see how strong the girls are. It took me a long time to catch Sybille because she was just riding awesome.

“That’s the future of our sport. It’s not just Jamie and Melanie, it’s Jamie and Melanie and Sybille and Renata (Bucher) and Danelle (Kabush) and all the rest of these awesome athletes.”

After exiting the water in third, McQuaid took the lead before the first major descent on the 32-kilometer bike and never looked back, heading home with nearly 45 seconds in hand over Matter. Behind her, Matter was using the day’s fastest run - a storming 51:53 10k - to consolidate her second place while Whitmore was determined to cling to third as fast runners threatened from behind. “I didn’t want to give up third place so I just put my head down and had to stay strong mentally,” Whitmore said at the finish.

The race for fourth and fifth was a scorcher, with just three seconds separating XTERRA rookie Renata Bucher of Switzerland from American Jenny Tobin.

Lebrun’s win in the men’s race marked a return to the top of the XTERRA game for the plucky all-’round athlete after bad luck with flats and mechanicals derailed his race last year, leaving him in sixth. In 2003, Lebrun finished second to Spain’s Eneko Llanos and was third in 2002 - but he’s also a silver medallist in the world duathlon championships and former world champion in winter triathlon.

Lebrun took control of the race about halfway through the bike, dueling with Canada’s Mike Vine in the later stages of the ride and coming into transition with about a minute in hand.

“It was a long trip to win here,” he said after the race. “I was second, third, and today I won. It’s amazing for me. I’m so, so happy.”

Lebrun said he knew he might have the race in hand when he finally came off the bike in first place - until then, in a race where a winning battle against the elements on the bike is essential to success, he couldn’t really allow himself such thoughts.

Nico adds off-road to his world titles.

Photo By Don Karle

“When I put the bike away first, I said to myself, ‘I think today it’s OK, it’s my day, because I know I can run very fast’ - normally it’s my best sport,” Lebrun said.

Llanos, the two-time champion, ran his way from fifth off of the bike into second by the finish, more than two minutes adrift of Lebrun. He’d struggled with a slowly leaking front tire and had stopped four or five times to add air along the way-but, as he admitted, it was really the first time he’d had any bad luck at XTERRA.

“This kind of thing happens on Maui, so apart from that my race was quite good,” he said. “I am happy.”

In third was Canada’s Brent McMahon in his rookie XTERRA season and Maui debut. The young ITU specialist and Olympian in triathlon last year led out of the water, then held onto sixth off the bike and ran into third on the strength of a blazing 44:01 run, the day’s fastest.

“It was a great day,” he said at the finish. “I’m just super-excited. I’m surprising a few people and I’m surprising myself, too. I didn’t know I was going to do this well. It’s really fun to do something different that’s really fun and then do well at it.”

Fourth went to Canada’s Mike Vine and fifth to Aussie Chris Legh, a long-course specialist on the roads who holds the run course record and again flew over the trails with a 44:24 run split.

Notes
Canada’s Peter Reid, who finished third at the Ironman Hawaii Championship last week, placed 14th overall at Xterra Worlds and won his sixth Hawaiian Airlines “Double” Award in seven years (including the last four). His combined time was 11:10:09 (8:20:04 in Kona and 2:50:05 in Maui). Aussie star Kate Major won the women’s double, and it was her first-ever XTERRA. Like Reid, Major finished third at Ironman. Her combined times equaled 12:51:01 (9:12:39 in Kona and 3:38:22 in Maui). Hawaiian Airlines awarded $2,500 cash to both.

In the amateur division Australian Ryland Garnett was the top male in 11:57:22 (8:55:20 + 3:02:02) and Amber Monforte was the top female in 10:41:07 (3:56:50 + 14:37:57). Those two received airfare from Hawaiian Airlines.

CBS will air the race on Super Bowl Sunday: February 5, 2006 at 12 noon EST.

Age is for old people.

Photo By Don Karle
Ned Overend, who became the first inductee into the XTERRA Hall of Fame in a ceremony on Saturday night, posted the 9th fastest bike split and placed 21st overall. It was Overend’s first XTERRA since finishing 4th in Maui in 2001. Quote of the day came from Peter Reid midway through the bike course when he passed a bunch of reporters saying “There’s a 50-year-old in front of me!”

Wendy Minor became the oldest woman to do the Hawaiian Airlines Double, finishing Ironman in 13:50:17 and XTERRA today in 5:06:43 for a combined 18:57:00.

Bobby McMullen, 42, became the first sight-impaired athlete to compete in the XTERRA World Championship. Led by guide Mark Shaw, McMullen finished unscathed in 7 hours and 45 minutes and got the loudest applause at the awards dinner.

A maxed-out field of 512 athletes were registered for the race; 479 started and 466 finished. Among the DNF’s were Dominic Gillen, Candy Angle, and Hektor Llanos - all victims of crashes and mechanicals.

Another previously retired XTERRA star, Pat Brown, un-retired to race with his dad, G.L. Brown, and both had great races (Pat was 29th overall and GL 7th in the 60-64 division).

Shonny Vanlandingham, the women’s U.S. National Mountain Bike Champ in the short course, had the fastest bike split and finished 7th overall in her first-ever XTERRA.

XTERRA World Championships. Oct. 23, 2005. Wailea, Maui, Hawaii.

S 1.5k/B 32k/R 10k

Overall Results, Women:

Overall Results, Men:

Oct 23

Mtn. Bike 26 miles in 1:45:00 — Swim 1600 in 0:45:00

With my road bike in the shop I went on a ride out to the dam with Hortie, Remi, and Guillaume while on my mountain bike. It was a perfect day for a ride and being on my mtn bike while on a road ride seemed good for my power output. It was low key for the most part but during several stretches the pace was fast. Before getting to the dam a roadie whizzed by. I wanted to get some speed work in so I chased after him and got on his wheel. He was not happy to have a mtn biker on his wheel, not one bit. But I was going hard, and this was a good opportunity to sprint. I stayed with him for a couple miles until we got in the park, then I let him go to his relief. I hope I didn’t upset him too much. It was an enjoyable ride and the sprints/riding on the mtn bike did make me a little sore.

Hortense was in a rush to go to the pool after biking and wanted to go immediately. I, on the other hand, wanted to digest some lunch while watching some football. She did not wait for me so we both ended up driving to the Y to swim. I arrived about 20 minutes after her in a less than motivated state. I did not do too much. 500 warm up and then 8x 50 on the :50. Keeping the 50 around 31. Then I just finished up with some distance swims… more to relax and recover than anything. Got out early, due to lack of motivation at around 1600 yards.

Oct 22 Barber to Boise

Warming up: I ran about 3/4’s of a mile from my house down Harrison until my wife picked me up. Then we drove out to Barber. It was warm and I was comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt. To further warm-up I went down the green belt a little over 5 minutes with some fast tempo stuff. Then it was a few minutes of stretching before heading back. So it was probably about 2 miles total and about 16 minutes of warming up. I felt pretty good and thought I would be up for a pretty good race.

The gun went off and I was surprised to be out in the front. “Where were the fast guys?” I stayed in the front until mile 1 and noticed a split of 5:20. I felt relaxed but I think in hind sight I forced it a bit too much. Tom came up and passed us so I tried to hold on as long as possible. It didn’t last long. His pace was too much for me to maintain so I backed off. At 3 miles I noticed a 16:48 and was thinking, “I don’t feel good enough to go faster the second half”.

At 4 miles I was at 22:13 and was beginning to be negative with my thought process. The pain was setting in big time by mile 5 and I just wanted to be done. I had three people pass me the last 2 miles. These guys are my inspiration for my next 10K…to finish strong. My time ended up being a mediocre 36:08. But I was told that the course might have been about 200 meters too long. So at least I might have broken 36 minutes.

I learned a lot from the race and consider it an excellent work out in preparation for Treasure Island. I also feel that the last couple weeks of intense training left my legs flat and well off their top form. I will begin my taper process in earnest now and definitely need it.

I did recover well from the race. I felt great a few hours later when I swam 4000 yards. I just swam at a moderate pace and did mostly 500’s.

I rode into work today and also home for lunch on a very warm October day in Boise. All 4 ways I kept it light except for an occasional low-key burst to make a light. I can feel the burn in my legs and hope that I can recover enough to have a good Barber to Boise on Saturday. I went 36:13 last year (Pace of 5:49). This year I would like to drop my pace down to 5:20 per mile and around 33 minutes total….I know this is a big drop but I think the recent training and lack of injury has benefited me running skill greatly….we will see.

After work I went for a 30 minute run. Milo forced the pace early on because Hortense was ahead of us (her first run back after being sick with what I had earlier this month). He wanted to catch up ASAP. My demands for him to ‘heel’ were ignored as a dogs excellent hearing seems to be quite selective. Kept the run short and not too hard in an effort to recover enough for a descent 10k run Saturday.

Bike 12 miles in 45 minutes — Swim 3000 in 1 hour

My commute to work was recovery based both ways today and took about 45 minutes.

Ryan came up with a fun and challenging workout. The workout was speedy and the last 50 of the 150’s maxed me out. This type of work-out should help improve on some much needed speed.

It was my usual easy stroll into work. I did get my first flat tire while commuting. On the way home I pushed it to the max several times. It is always a lot of stop and go with the traffic lights but I think it is a great power workout. On 15th street I stayed with and passed a corvette until I needed to turn left onto my street, while going just under 30mph. Then I headed out towards Dry Creek at a better than average pace. I passed Gar and Keith just before Gary Lane and then rode with them. Gar had just gotten back from the ITU World Championships in Honolulu and also from watching the Ironman in Kona. Must have been an awesome trip.

It was a quick stop at home before heading out and doing the tempo run up Hulls Gulch. I knew from the start that my legs were not up to par. I felt good but not fast. The legs just had no oomph in them. Seven minutes and 15 seconds into the run I reached the tempo start. I stretched for quite a while, then chatted with Jon when he ran by enjoying the nice evening weather.

The tempo start was lacking any explosive power (what little I have) that I sometimes feel. So I tried to keep it strong and finish hard for the last 400 metes which I tend to slow down on. I really wanted to keep my time under 11 minutes, alas, my finish time of 11:07 expressed the tiredness in my legs. There were many mtn bikes coming down the gulch today…so I did have to slow down or get over a few times. But if I had to walk or stop I was also stopping the watch. However, your rhythm has been lost and the pain sets in ever so briefly. before trying to get back up to speed. I think, even with the watch stoppage, that this slows you down.

I think the speed work over the last few days has been good, but I’m walking a fine line. I’ll have to be careful the next two days not to over-do-it.