Ruben Ruzafa of Spain edged Josiah Middaugh of the U.S. by less than a minute and Flora Duffy of Bermuda sailed to a 5:52 margin of victory over Barbara Riveros of Chile to win the XTERRA USA Championship titles on a tough course at altitude at Ogden, Utah.
Men
Ruzafa’s victory was the hardest earned of a remarkable 9-race win streak that began last October at the XTERRA World Championship in Maui and included a perfect 7-for-7 record while winning the 2014 XTERRA European Championship Series.
Ruzafa and perennial rival Josiah Middaugh of the U.S. emerged from the swim virtually tied – 24:26 to 24:29 -- 2:08 behind Ben Allen of Australia, 1:51 behind XTERRA phenom Mauricio Mendez of Mexico, 1:34 behind Dan Hugo of South Africa, 1:30 behind Branden Rakita of the U.S. 1:24 behind Brad Zoller of the U.S., 1:20 behind Craig Evans of the U.S. and 1:04 back of Bradley Weiss of South Africa.
Using his pro mountain biking skills that preceded his XTERRA racing career and were sharpened in a two-year stretch away from XTERRA, Ruzafa sliced through the better swimmers like a hot knife through butter. His race-best 1:18:01 split left everyone but Middaugh gasping for breath on the 30k mountain bike leg that included 4,000-plus feet of climbing that peaked at 6,500 feet about sea level.
Middaugh, the XTERRA U.S. series champion, knew this was his last best chance to end Ruzafa’s streak as he lives and trains in the high altitude of Vail, Colorado while Ruzafa’s home base is at sea level. “On the bike I knew I had to push very hard to stay ahead of Josiah,” said the Spaniard. “I knew this course was good for Josiah because he lives and trains at altitude.”
Near the end of the bike leg, Ruzafa made what turned out to be the winning move. “The last climb I got 2 minutes,” said Ruzafa. In fact, that accounted for Ruzafa’s lead at T2 as Middaugh managed a 1:20:00 split.
Midway through the run, Ruzafa fell in a rocky section. That might have opened the door for Midaugh, but Ruzafa shut it as he got up immediately and pushed hard to the finish. “I wasn't nervous as I didn’t lose much time and on the last downhill I ran really fast.”
Ruzafa hit the line in 2:21:47 with a 56 seconds margin of victory. Middaugh’s race-best 38:14 split made up 1:06 on Ruzafa but left him in the runner-up spot and Ruzafa’s 2014 XTERRA race record remained spotless. “This is the best year of my life,” said Ruzafa. “I am in a really good moment and I must keep working to keep it going.”
Women
Flora Duffy has quickly come to dominate the XTERRA women’s fields as her first XTERRA race was last year’s Beaver Creek contest where she made a modest top 10 finish to qualify for Maui, then shocked the XTERRA veteran women with a 3rd place finish at Worlds. Since then, Duffy has perfected her mountain biking skills and applied them to wins at XTERRA West, XTERRA East and XTERRA Southeast before taking her only loss – a 2nd place at XTERRA Germany which doubled as the ITU Cross Triathlon World championship. She then skipped a few XTERRA races to keep her hand in ITU races which offered Olympic qualifying points which would help her in a quest to make her 3rd Olympic team.
On this day, Duffy came out of the swim first, a few seconds ahead of Barbara Riveros, a comfortable minute ahead of a rehabbed Lesley Paterson and 90 seconds on Chantell Widney and Suzie Snyder. After her short ITU season ended with an 8th place finish at the Commonwealth Games and an 18th place finish at the WTS Grand Final at Edmonton, Duffy dug in in Boulder with three weeks of intense mountain bike training. Well prepared, she took control on the second leg in Ogden and unleashed a race-best 1:34:45 split that was 11 seconds better than Paterson, 1:58 better than Emma Garrard, and 6:15 better than a struggling Riveros. “Once I got on the bike, I didn’t take it out too hard because it is a very tough course at altitude with a ton of climbing,” said Duffy. “I wanted to save something for what is a very demanding and brutal run course.”
Duffy put a lock on the win with a race-best 38:49 run that was 3:39 better than Riveros, 6:31 better than a still-hurting Paterson and 6:26 better than Widney, who won the Beaver Creek round in mid-summer.
“I was happy to mix XTERRA and ITU races this year,” said Duffy. “It keeps things interesting.”
Duffy finished in 2:38:36 with a 5:51 margin on Riveros and 7:48 on 3rd place finisher Paterson. “I don’t want to make excuses because that takes away from better performances,” said Paterson, a 2-time XTERRA World Champion who suffered nerve damage from a complex case of periforma syndrome for most the past year. “But I take some pride in my finish today, my first race back since Maui last year. Eight months ago, I was crying and unable to get out of bed. I wasn't able to run or ride until May and through it all I learned how to manage the pain.”
XTERRA USA Championship
Ogden, Utah
September 20, 2014
S 1.5k / B 30k / R 10k
Results
Men
1. Ruben Ruzafa (ESP) 2:21:47
2. Josiah Middaugh (USA) 2:22:43
3. Mauricio Mendez (MEX) 2:28:55
4. Bradley Weiss (RSA) 2:29:31
5. Dan Hugo (RSA) 2:32:06
6. Brad Zoller (USA) 2:33:47
7. Cody Waite (USA) 2:33:59
8. Craig Evans (USA) 2:34:14
9. Chris Ganter (USA) 2:34:42
10. Alex Modestou (USA) 2:35:46
Women
1. Flora Duffy (BER) 2:38:18
2. Barbara Riveros (CHL) 2:44:28
3. Lesley Paterson (GBR) 2:46:24
4. Emma Garrard (USA) 2:48:10
5. Chantell Widney (CAN) 2:50:10
6. Suzie Snyder (USA) 2:52:04
7. Carina Wasle (AUT) 2:52:53
8. Danelle Kabush (CAN) 2:53:32
9. Sara Schuler (USA) 2:55:57
10. Shonny Vanlandingham (USA) 3:01:40
