Bradley Weiss passed Conrad Stoltz for the victory when the legendary all-time XTERRA wins leader missed a turn just a kilometer from the finish. Nicolette Griffioen earned a comfortable win with an excellent mountain bike leg and a 2nd best run at XTERRA Buffelspoort Saturday.
Men
Weiss combined a 3rd-best 23:02 swim, a 2nd-fastest 1:13:47 split for the 26.5k mountain bike leg and 2nd-best 57:30 split for the 12k trail run to finish in 2:35:31 with a 2:16 margin over Antoine Van Heerden and 2:53 over 3rd-place finisher Stoltz.
Theo Blignaut led the swim in 21:53, followed 59 seconds later by Stoltz and 10 seconds further back by Weiss. Stoltz grabbed the lead with a race-best 1:11:50 mountain bike split which gave him a 2:30 lead on Weiss, about 3:30 on Blignaut and about 6 minutes on Antoine Van Heerden.
“I entered the bike discipline behind Conrad and Theo Blignaut,” said Weiss. “Conrad is stronger than me so I decided not to overextend myself trying to keep up. I caught Theo and rode with him for about 10 minutes before building a gap. Building up to this event, I did a lot of gym work and felt really strong on my feet.”
Weiss charged hard on the run and cut Stoltz’s lead to 20 seconds when the 7-time World champion made a big mistake with just one kilometer left of the 12k trail run.
“Conrad made a wrong turn and I called after him but he didn’t hear,” said Weiss. “It’s never a nice way to pass someone. Claiming my very first XTERRA victory today was intense, a surreal experience, and I couldn’t be happier.”
The day after, Stoltz tweeted: “Losing a race by missing a turn in the last km hurts even more the morning after.”
Women
Griffioen overcame a big lead by 30-34 age grouper Carla Van Huysteen with a second-best run in a race which featured a great deal of back and forth jockeying.
Age groupers Sylvia Van Tromp (23:29), Robyn Williams (24:28) and Carla Van Huysteen (24:29) led the swim by nearly 5 minutes on elapsed time over top pros Griffioen (28:21) and Natia Van Heerden (28:38).
While Williams and Van Tromp gave up 5 minutes and 9 minutes respectively to Griffioen’s fine 1:31:00 bike split, Van Huysteen blazed the mountain bike section with a race-fastest 1:28:48 split that gave the F30-34 age group contender about a 6-minutes elapsed time lead starting the run.
Griffioen didn’t blink and unleashed a second-best 1:16:25 run that quickly erased Van Huysteen’s lead and was 17 minutes faster than her age group adversary. While fellow pro Van Heerden outran Griffioen by 1:05, it was not enough to make up for her deficiency on the bike leg. Griffioen finished in 3:18:35 with a 4:35 advantage on Van Heerden and 7:16 over 3rd-place overall finisher and F35-39 age group winner Van Tromp.
After a 1:33:28 run, swift swimmer-cyclist Van Huysteen finished 5th overall, 9:45 behind the winner.
“The swim was choppy and I swallowed a lot of water,” said Griffioen, who added, “I had a good bike ride – I liked the nice technical sections. It was hot out on the trail run, with the course featuring a killer climb. I am really surprised to take the win today.”
Totalsports XTERRA Buffelspoort
Near Rustenberg, South Africa
January 25, 2015
S 1.5k / MTB 26.5k / TR 12k
Results
Men
1. Bradley Weiss (RSA) 2:35:31
2. Antoine Van Heerden (RSA) 2:37:47
3. Conrad Stoltz (RSA) 2:38:24
4. Theo Blignaut (RSA) 2:39:15
5. Nico Sterk (RSA) 2:43:41
Women
1. Nicolette Griffioen (RSA) 3:18:35
2. Natia Van Heerden (RSA) 3:23:10
3. Sylvia Van Tromp (RSA) 3:25:51 * F35-39
4. Robyn Williams (RSA) 3:27:46 * F25-29
5. Carla Van Huysteen (RSA) 3:28:20 * F30-34
