Josiah Middaugh held off a determined charge by Mauricio Mendez and Suzie Snyder won the women's event in a wire-to-wire domination at XTERRA Oak Mountain. This event was the fourth of 10 in the newly reconfigured XTERRA Pan American Tour that began with events in Costa Rica, Argentina and Brazil before the clash in Alabama.

Men

Middaugh, the reigning XTERRA World Champion and Pan American Tour series leader, emerged from the 1.5 kilometer swim in 8th position, 2:36 behind 20-year-old Mexican phenomenon Mendez. Once on the bike, Middaugh quickly surged into 4th place, then passed Branden Rakita of the U.S. and Karsten Madsen of Canada on the mountain biking loop’s big climb and finally reeled in Mendez a mile from T2.

“I came out of the water behind seven guys,” said Middaugh. “And as I went by them on the bike I kept asking them, ‘Where is Mauricio?’ and they couldn’t tell me anything, just that they hadn’t seen him. I was working harder and harder and finally caught him towards the end of the bike and it was just a battle on the run to stay a few steps ahead of him.”

Middaugh gained 3:06 on the bike leg against Mendez and 19 more seconds in transition, which gave him a 49 seconds lead over the fleet-footed Mexican starting the run. Both men went right to the redline on the woodsy run, and Mendez outpaced the Coloradan 34:09 to 34:49. But in the end, Middaugh finished in 2:19:17 with an 11 seconds margin of victory.

Mendez, who was 4th at XTERRA Worlds last year, was happy that his bike handling skills had improved dramatically. “I know my weakest point is the bike and I’ve been working on it,” said Mendez. “This bike course, I have so much respect for it. Two years ago here everybody was catching me, so today I pushed as hard as I could. When I saw Josiah coming behind me I lost my focus just for a few seconds and crashed into a tree.”

That crash might have been the difference this day. “It feels good when it’s a battle like that, it feels rewarding,” said Middaugh, who won XTERRA Tahiti last weekend.

Karsten Madsen of Canada outran Branden Rakita of the U.S. to take 3rd, 4:21 behind Mendez and 1:31 ahead of Rakita.

Women

Last year, Snyder was in her best season as a pro, winning XTERRA New Zealand and the XTERRA East Championship before fracturing her pelvis pre-riding XTERRA Mexico. After spending 9 months recovering, XTERRA Oak Mountain was her first race back and she was bursting with energy and ambition.

Snyder broke to a 3 minute lead with a women’s best 22:33 swim split, and followed that up with the women's-fastest 1:35:36 mountain bike split, 2:28 faster than nearest challenger Maia Ignatz. Snyder then closed the deal in her comeback race with a women’s 3rd-best 43:54 trail run split to finish in 2:43:57 with a 4:15 margin of victory over Boulder, Colorado’s Ignatz (40:56 run) and 7:28 over 3rd place finisher Kara LaPoint of Truckee, California.

“Hardest I’ve pushed myself since Beaver Creek last year,” said Snyder. “So it hurt really bad. I had a good swim and I needed that today. On the run I was afraid I went too hard. I went out too fast because I knew there were fast girls behind me and I didn’t want it to come down to a battle. I was trying to get out of sight.”

Ignatz was happy with her runner-up finish, a career best. “I’m so happy,” she told XTERRA media. “Thrilled with how things went today. I was able to stay upright, I rode well, I ran well, but I can’t say I swam well.” Ignatz came out of the water in 4th but more than three minutes behind Snyder.

XTERRA Oak Mountain
Pelham, Alabama
May 21, 2016

Results

Men

1. Josiah Middaugh (USA) 2:19:17
2. Mauricio Mendez (MEX) 2:19:28
3. Karsten Madsen (CAN) 2:23:49
4. Branden Rakita (USA) 2:25:20
5. Kieran McPherson (NZL) 2:25:34

Women

1. Suzie Snyder (USA) 2:43:57
2. Maia Ignatz (USA) 2:48:12
3. Kara LaPoint (USA) 2:51:25
4. Debby Sullivan (USA) 3:00:31
5. Sabrina Gobbo (BRA) 3:04:35

XTERRA Pan America Tour Standings

Men

1. Josiah Middaugh (USA) 267
2. Karsten Madsen (CAN) 172
3. Ian King (USA) 106
4. Mauricio Mendez (MEX) 90
5. Jonatan Morales (ARG) 82

Women

1. Sabrina Gobbo (BRA) 205
2. Miriam Guillot-Boisset (FRA) 175
3. Laura Mira Doas (BRA) 149
4. Kara LaPoint (USA) 149
5. Caroline Colonna (USA) 114