The campaigns for world domination by reigning Xterra World Champ Conrad Stoltz and former world champ Melanie McQuaid started with a bang when both took resounding victories at Sunday’s Xterra West Championships in Temecula, CA.
Record-setting heat throughout Southern California saw the mercury rise to 97 degrees F, putting a premium on pacing over the rolling course. It also saw several road pros make appearances off road, including 2006 Hawaii Ironman World Champion and 2000 Sydney Olympian Michellie Jones, 2004 Athens Olympian Victor Plata and Team Luna swim specialist Linda Gallo. Jones’ last Xterra race was in 1996 in Maui, when she won the first ever Xterra World Championship title.
The race was a fairly textbook performance for Stoltz. After a solid swim, it was only about four miles into the bike before he picked his way past early swim leaders Craig Evans.
In fact, the only man to stay close to Stoltz on the bike was fellow South African Dan Hugo, a protogee of Stoltz from his hometown of Stellenbosch that he’d groomed since Hugo was 11 years old. Now, Hugo was making Stoltz work to retain his lead as Hugo chased throughout the bike at less than a minute back. “I taught him all my secrets when he was a kid, but he’s not a kid anymore,” Stoltz said.
It was late in the bike when Stoltz showed that the rainbow stripes are on his jersey for a reason as he used his technical prowess to grow his lead to just over a minute heading into T2. “I couldn’t shake Dan, so I had to fall back on my technical skills,” Stoltz said. “I don’t like to take big risks, but if it comes down to it, I will.”
After a day-fastest bike of 1:25, Stoltz pulled on his racing flats and pushed his big frame up the hills and along the ridgelines as the temperatures soared, finishing first in 2:23:02.
The 23-year-old Hugo took second by just over three minutes.
Among those fighting for the remaining places, it was recent Xterra Winter World Champion Brian Smith, leapfrogging several athletes to take third on the heels of a day-best 34:07 run split.
The women’s race saw a shocked McQuaid dealing with a spate of setback through the day. An athlete’s pull on her arm during the swim flustered her to the tune of a slower swim, and an array of other maladies. And like many on the course, the heat started to get the best of her.
“It didn’t help coming from Victoria to this heat,” McQuaid said. “I was conservative on the second lap of the bike, and the whole run, but with the heat and the fact that I missed my bottle on the second lap, I started cramping and knew I could be in trouble. It was basically everything that could go wrong in the first race of the year, did.”
Regardless, McQuaid was made her way to the front of the bike early on, charging past early swim leaders Christine Jeffery and Gallo to take the lead by mile eight of the bike. Once at the front, McQuaid tried to grow her lead while managing the heat.
Once on the run, McQuaid was like the rest of the athletes: simply trying to survive under a scorching SoCal sun. “I was counting steps the whole way, just counting to 10, counting to 10, just to get ‘er done.”
Germany’s Marion Summerer clicked together the fastest run of the day (44:04) to close a bit of her gap off the bike to McQuaid, but it was too little, too late as the Canadian strode across to defend her Temecula title in 2:51:31.
For both McQuaid and Stoltz, Temecula marked the first frequent flier airline miles, as Stoltz plans to race the entire global Xterra tour for the first time, while McQuaid will also hit the European tour with stops in Wales, Czechoslovakia and France.
“(Reigning Xterra World Champ) Julie (Dibens) doesn’t race the North American Tour. I want to get a good hard look at her before Worlds this year. And the courses there don’t suit me at all, so I need to race on as many awful, terrible courses that I can."
Said Stoltz: “It will be a great challenge. I’ve not been to Europe since 1999 and Amber (Monforte, Stoltz’ girlfriend and the day’s fifth-place female finisher) and I will travel it together, which will make all that travel easier. I’m glad I have her to look after all those travel bookings—I usually wait till a week before I have to go before I realize, ‘wow, I need a ticket.’”
Top 10 Pro men
1. Conrad Stoltz (RSA) 2:23:02
2. Dan Hugo (RSA) 2:25:20
3. Brian Smith (USA) 2:28:21
4. Josiah Middaugh (USA) 2:30:05
5. Seth Wealing (USA) 2:31:47
6. Rom Akerson (CR) 2:32:04
7. Craig Evans (USA) 2:33:00
8. Kelly Guest (CAN) 2:33:31
9. Jimmy Archer (USA) 2:34:09
10. Jim Vance (USA) 2:34:23
Top 10 Pro women
1. Melanie Mcquaid (CAN) 2:51:31
2. Marion Summerer (USA) 2:52:58
3. Jenny Tobin (USA) 2:59:48
4. Danelle Kabush (CAN) 3:00:42
5. Amber Monforte (USA) 3:01:19
6. Christine Jeffrey (CAN) 3:02:49
7. Emma Garrard (USA) 3:05:39
8. Kristy Lanier (USA) 3:07:10
9. Lesley Paterson (USA) 3:07:58
10. Michellie Jones (AUS) 3:13:40
