2009 Beaver Creek XTERRA Mountain Cup

Lebrun, Vanlandingham Claim Titles

XTERRA Planet

July 18, 2009 (Avon, CO) – Nico Lebrun and Shonny Vanlandingham won the XTERRA Mountain Cup off-road triathlon at Beaver Creek Resort in Avon. The course, designed by legendary adventure racer Mike Kloser, featured more than 4,000-feet of climbing and combined a 1-mile swim in Avon’s Nottingham Lake with a 16-mile mountain bike and 6-mile trail run.

It was the second win in seven days for Lebrun – who captured the XTERRA Northeast Cup in Vermont last Sunday – and moved him into second behind Conrad Stoltz in the Cup Series standings heading into the XTERRA USA Championship in Utah on September 26.

The 2005 XTERRA World Champ from France had won three consecutive XTERRA European Tour championships from 2006-2008 before setting his sights on winning the XTERRA America Tour this year. It wasn’t looking good for Lebrun after the first three races (he didn’t finish at the West Cup and was fifth at the next two) but in his last five races he’s won twice, placed second twice, and was third in another to move within striking distance of Stoltz – a remarkable comeback.

In today’s race Lebrun started slow, real slow, coming out of the swim nearly three minutes behind the lead pack that included Branden Rakita, Seth Wealing, road tri guys Joe McDaniel and Brad Zoller, and Olympic medalist Susan Williams.

What he lost in the swim Lebrun quickly made up on the bike (his 1:14:45 bike split was the best of the day, more than two minutes better than the second-best time put in by Cody Waite). After he passed Mike Vine and Rakita he rode alone into the bike-to-run transition where he had about a minute on the chase pack.

Before Lebrun caught up to the front on the bike he noticed Josiah Middaugh walking with his bike. Middaugh, who lives just a mile away from this course, had just caught Rakita (who was in the lead) on the bike at mile three when he hit a wooden sign post that exploded his pinkie (needed 9 stitches after the race) and sent him flying over the handle bars. The crash tacoed his front wheel, which he fixed the best he could but the tire was rubbing the fork the rest of the way. Middaugh also lost his water bottle in the incident so didn’t get the calories he needed for the rest of the day, but amazingly he still came off the bike in fourth and passed Rakita on the run to finish in third.

Vine had a solid day all around to finish a little more than a minute behind Lebrun in second. Cody Waite, who had the race of his career to this point, was actually the second person to cross the line but had missed a short section of the run and was given a two-minute time penalty that put him in fourth. Of note, Olympian Tyler Butterfield from Bermuda had the fastest run split (37:22) and finished seventh in his XTERRA Championship race debut (he was second at the Buffalo Creek points series race in his first-ever XTERRA).

For Vanlandingham – the most successful rider in NORBA mountain biking history – the victory caps a brilliant second half of the season that included two wins (she also won the Southeast Cup), a second and third. Vanlaningham won this race a year ago before it earned championship race status, but this time she did it against an incredible pro field that included Olympic bronze medalist Susan Williams, Olympic skier Rebecca Dussault, three-time XTERRA Europe champ Renata Bucher, two-time XTERRA Worlds runner-up Danelle Kabush, and a cast of others.

“I had a pretty good bike, caught Susan Williams about halfway through and think I got into T2 with a four and a half minute lead. Then, my run was just 36 seconds slower than Danelle’s and considering how great a runner she is I’m real pleased with that. Great day for the team,” said Vanlandingham.

Indeed it was a good day for the Luna Chix with Shonny V and Danelle Kabush finishing 1-2 and with the best bike and run splits.

“Beaver Creek is just a really great spot, for the racers and for the spectators because it’s such a nice place to hang out and spend some time. It’s beautiful,” said Vanlandingham.

“Shonny V” was more than four minutes behind Williams coming out of the water but absolutely crushed the bike course, posting a 1:24:37 split that was five minutes better than Sara Tarkington’s second-best time. Tarkington, meanwhile, had the best race of her XTERRA career with a third-place finish. Kabush continues to prove she turns on the speed as the year goes on and had the fastest run split (41:08) to finish in second. Renata Bucher, one of the pre-race favorites to win this and winner of the Northeast Cup last weekend, had nothing go wrong except for a really tough race at altitude. Also of note, long-time amateur standout Brandyn Roark Gray got her pro card this week and placed twelfth in her first-ever race as a professional.

Pro Women

	Name	Age	Hometown	Time	Pts	Purse
1	Shonny Vanlandingham	39	Durango, Colorado	2:30:14	100	$1,800
2	Danelle Kabush	34	Canmore, Alberta, Canada	2:36:16	90	$1,250
3	Sara Tarkington	28	Boulder, Colorado	2:36:32	82	$800
4	Susan Williams	40	Littleton, Colorado	2:36:58	75	$500
5	Rebecca Dussault	28	Crested Butte, Colorado	2:40:00	69	$400
6	Renata Bucher	31	Lucerne, Switzerland	2:41:17	63	$300
7	Jenny Smith	36	Westport, New Zealand	2:41:30	58	$200
8	Emma Garrard	27	Truckee, California	2:47:14	53
9	Sari Anderson	30	Carbondale, Colorado	2:51:21	49
10	Tracy Thelen	29	Colorado Springs, Colorado	2:53:41	45

 

Pro Men

	Name	Age	Hometown	Time	Pts	Purse
1	Nico Lebrun	35	Digne-les-Bains, France	2:15:06	100	$1,800
2	Mike Vine	35	Victoria, B.C., Canada	2:16:29	90	$1,250
3	Josiah Middaugh	30	Vail, Colorado	2:17:42	82	$800
4	Cody Waite	30	Lakewood, Colorado	2:18:09	75	$500
5	Branden Rakita	28	Manitou Springs, Colorado	2:19:14	69	$400
6	Brian Smith	33	Gunnison, Colorado	2:20:23	63	$300
7	Tyler Butterfield	23	Pembroke Parish, Bermuda	2:21:33	58	$200
8	Ryan Ignatz	30	Boulder, Colorado	2:21:45	53
9	Sam Gardner	34	Surrey, Great Britain	2:24:05	49
10	Will Kelsay	27	Boulder, Colorado	2:29:17	45