South African Conrad Stoltz took the win at the 12th annual XTERRA New Zealand Championships and Chilean Barbara Riveros captured the women's title with a dominating performance.
The men
Tayler Reid was first out of the water of Blue Lake in Rotorua in 11:49 and he had a bunch of the favorites close behind. Roger Serrano was next in 11:52, Oliver Shaw and Ben Allen managed 11:54 splits, and Conrad Stoltz had a solid swim too with a 12:33.
Stoltz however charged into the lead 4 miles into the bike and then pulled steadily away from the others. His 1:06:32 bike split bested Allen and Shaw by more than 2 minutes and gave him an even bigger advantage over all other competitors.
Once on the run Allen started to gain some time back, but Shaw ran pretty much the same pace as the experienced South African. Stoltz crossed the line in 2:04:51 and took the win. Allen was second in 2:05:31 and Shaw grabbed 3rd place in 2:07:28.
"I've had good form early this year but had a couple of bad luck races with flats and stuff earlier this summer in South Africa so it was great to come out here and make the most of it," said a clearly elated Stoltz. "The course was phenomenal, exactly what I expected. I heard so many good things about it and saw footage of it on the internet. When I saw the course I thought wow, this is just phenomenal. I wish I could stay longer and ride some more and see the rest of the trails out here."
The women
With a 12:41 swim split Barbara Riveros started her day well and thanks to her experienced swift ITU transition she added another 15 seconds to her 40 seconds she had gained on Jacqui Slack in the water. All other Pros though had lost at least 1.5 minutes to the Chilean who had finished 8th at the WTS Auckland race last weekend.
Riveros pushed hard on the bike but the hard charging Slack reeled her in and then Riveros had to fight hard to not get dropped by the fast Brit.
"Jacqui was pushing so hard on the bike, and came so very close to dropping me. I had to put the hammer down just to stay with her. I’m really happy for her because she has brought her mountain bike skill to another level. She's another athlete compared to last year," said Riveros.
But on the run no one could touch Riveros and the tiny Chilean's run split of 45:33 would have put her in top spots of the men's race. As it was, Riveros gained 6 minutes on Slack and cruised to a dominating win in 2:18:32. Slack grabbed second place in 2:24:14 and Sarah Beckler rounded out the podium in 2:27:44
"Pretty happy with my performance today," said Riveros. "It's hard to spend much time on my mountain bike because my focus is ITU and next month we start qualification for Rio."
XTERRA New Zealand Championships
Rotorua, NZL / April 12, 2014
Top men
1. Conrad Stoltz (RSA) 2:04:51
2. Ben Allen (AUS) 2:05:31
3. Olly Shaw (NZL) 2:07:28
4. Sam Osborne (NZL) 2:08:55
5. Roger Serrano (ESP) 2:11:27
Top women
1. Barbara Riveros (CHL) 2:18:32
2. Jacqui Slack (GBR) 2:24:14
3. Sarah Backler (NZL) 2:27:44
4. Lizzie Orchard (NZL) 2:30:20
5. Rachel Challis (NZL) 2:30:59
