Mendez, Erbenova take XTERRA Sweden
Mauricio Mendez edged Yeray Luxem of Belgium by 50 seconds and Helena Erbenova dominated the women's field at XTERRA Sweden.
The win by the 22-year-old Mexican prodigy was Mendez’ second in three weeks, and it was Erbenova’s second in a row, fifth on the 2016 XTERRA European Tour and 23rd of her career.
Men
Mendez led Sam Osborne of New Zealand out of the wetsuit swim, 18:06 to 18:07, followed by XTERRA regulars including Theo Blignaut of South Africa (+38s), Yeray Luxem of Belgium (+1:25), Arthur Forissier of France (+1:28), Arthur Serrieres of France (+1:33), and Kris Coddens of Belgium (+1:35).
Osborne crushed the transition and gained 14 seconds on the Mexican heading out on the mountain bike leg, followed by Blignaut and Forissier. Forissier quickly dropped back when his shifter malfunctioned and his chain stuck between gears.
Osborne dominated the bike by keeping cool. “I know I try to go too hard on the bike and I go off the road too much” he grinned. “Today I said to myself, keep calm. I hit my lines and had a great ride.” By the end of the first lap, Osborne carved out a 30 seconds lead on Mendez and a minute on Luxem and Serrieres. Coddens charged hard and caught Luxem and Serrieres but crashed. “My back hurt a little bit,” said the tall Belgian. “I don’t think it was from the crash but I did not feel 100-percent. I couldn’t gain the time back and thought I would go pretty hard and then give it on the run.”
At T2, Osborne had a 1:10 lead on Luxem, who made up a lot of ground with a race-best 1:16:37 bike split, and 1:20 on Mendez, who lost ground with a 4th-best 1:18:04 bike split, and a few seconds more on Serrieres, who fashioned a 2nd-best 1:16:48 bike split. Luxem passed Mendez and the two top runners started to chase down Osborne. “Yeray took off very fast and I said this is a good pace, we will catch Sam,” said Mendez. “I was worried because last week I could not catch him, so I ran really hard to stay with him.”
Osborne maintained a 20 seconds lead starting the second lap of the run, but fell 1 kilometer into the second loop. “I knew they were coming and I was not paying attention,” said Osborne. “I hit something and my ankle twisted badly. I didn’t go down, but they were past me immediately.”
Mendez charged hard and opened a lead on Luxem who could not answer. Osborne closed with a race-best 42:08 run that brought him to the finish in 2:19:26, with a 60 seconds margin of victory over Luxem (43:02 run) and 1:55 on 3rd-place Osborne (45:18 run).
Women
Carina Wasle of Austria led the swim in 21:33, which gave her a 52 seconds lead on Mayalen Noriega of Spain, 1:58 on Erbenova, 2:05 on Cecilia Jessen of Sweden, 3:03 on Marie Nilsson of Sweden, and 4:16 on Sue Paz Thunström of Sweden.
Wasle, who broke her foot four weeks ago, wanted to see how far she could go and toughed it out in the lead until Erbenova passed her after one lap of the bike.
Erbenova took it easy once she arrived in the lead, but not too easy. “I could not go too easy because then I’d lose focus so I made a good pace and I am very happy,” said Erbenova.
Age grouper Marie Nilsson passed Swedish pro Cecilia Jessen to take 2nd place midway through the run. “This is my home course,” Nilsson said. “I know these trails and practice them often.”
Mayalen Noriega was not comfortable on the tight, rocky trails and dropped back to finish 4th overall, 3rd pro woman. Wasle stayed in 2nd place until she got lost on the second lap of the run, started cramping and took a rest before continuing and finishing 5th pro woman.
XTERRA Sweden
Hellasgarden, Sweden
August 13, 2016
S 1.5k / B 30k / R 10k
Results
Men
1. Mauricio Mendez (MEX) 2:19:26
2. Yeray Luxem (BEL) 2:20:16
3. Sam Osborne (NZL) 2:21:21
4. Kris Coddens (BEL) 2:26:02
5. Arthur Serrieres (FRA) 2:26:33
Women
1. Helena Erbenova (CZE) 2:41:54
2. Marie Nilsson (SWE) 2:56:44 *F35-39
3. Cecilia Jessen (SWE) 2:59:37
4. Mayalen Noriega (ESP) 3:08:18
5. Sue Paz Thunström (SWE) 3:10:21 *F30-34
