Vanlandingham and Middaugh Take Runner-up Spots at XTERRA South Central Championship

Vanlandingham and Middaugh Take Runner-up Spots at XTERRA South Central Championship

XTERRA Planet

xterraMay 23, 2010 (Waco, TX) – Colorado residents Shonny Vanlandingham and Josiah Middaugh both placed second at the XTERRA South Central Championship held Sunday in Waco, Texas. Vanlandingham currently leads the XTERRA U.S. Pro Series women’s standings, while Middaugh is second on the men’s side.

Stoltz Continues His Dominance

Conrad Stoltz, 36, from Stellenbosch, South Africa captured the inaugural XTERRA South Central Championship men’s title on a hot and humid day deep in the heart of Texas at Cameron Park in Waco.

Nobody on the XTERRA Planet knows how to “Cowboy Up” like Stoltz, and he proved it by crushing the twisty-turny-tree-lined bike course, and walking tall across the finish line with a cowboy hat on in 2:02:21, more than three-minutes ahead of runner-up Josiah Middaugh from Vail, Colorado.

“I had fresh legs today and was just killing it on the bike.  I love this course, and when I came off the bike and someone said I had a four-minute lead I thought to myself maybe we should move the XTERRA World Championship to Waco,” laughed Stoltz to an appreciative local crowd at the finish line.  He posted a 1:05:26 split on the 15-mile bike course, nearly two minutes quicker than Middaugh.

The race started with Christine “Big Fish” Jeffrey leading all racers (men and women) out of the 1.5-kilometer warm water swim in the Brazos River, followed by Branden Rakita, Craig Evans, then Stoltz.

It wasn’t long, however, until Stoltz jumped into the lead on the bike, and then started building on it. Middaugh and Nico Lebrun, who finished the swim two minutes behind Stoltz, caught Rakita at about the halfway point but didn’t get Evans in their sights until the bike-to-run transition.

“Nico and I stayed together on the bike and I thought we were doing well and making time but Conrad was actually putting time on us,” said Middaugh, the proud father of a 10-day old daughter that he and his wife Ingrid named Larsen (they also have two boys).

When asked how far he was behind Stoltz heading out onto the run, Middaugh replied, “I don’t know, half a day?  Seriously though, someone said it was four minutes, just ridiculous.  I guess if he would’ve stopped and had some barbeque maybe I’d have had a chance.”

Lebrun and Middaugh played cat-and-mouse on the run for a bit, before Middaugh (who had the fastest run split for the second straight race) started working the climbs harder.

“Josiah was just too fast for me, he was really strong,” said Lebrun.  “I sat on his legs during the swim, rode behind him most of the bike, and then he dropped me on the run.  He’s really strong, but in this kind of race nobody can beat Conrad.  He’s on another planet on this kind of bike course.”

Stoltz said that a lot of the credit goes to the locals, whose homestay put him up in an airstream “like a rockstar” while Ian Moore of Bicycles Outback in Waco fine tuned his ride on Saturday night before the race.  “Ian has worked with some of the best riders and innovative equipment mountain biking has ever seen and I think he’s probably just one of a handful of guys in the world that could’ve dialed in my bike like he did.”

Evans held on for fourth-place, his best result since finishing third in Alabama two years ago, and the young-gun Ryan DeCook made the podium in the fifth spot for the first time in his career.

Bucher Dances Her Way to Victory

Renata Bucher, the Swiss Miss of XTERRA, caught Melanie McQuaid at the end of the bike and pulled away on the run, winning in 2:17:59, a little more than two minutes ahead of Arlington, Texas native and Colorado resident Shonny Vanlandingham.

“It was just a perfect day,” said Bucher.  It’s just the second of 22 career wins that have come in the U.S. for the four-time XTERRA European Tour Champ.

Bucher came out of the water four minutes behind Jeffrey, and two-minutes, 20 seconds after Melanie McQuaid, but still about a minute-thirty ahead of Shonny Vanlandingham – who would prove to be the fastest female on today’s bike course.

Still, McQuaid caught and passed Jeffrey early on and led through most of the bike until just before the newly crafted 50-foot long wooden bridge that connected a culvert tunnel over a muddy creek and onto single track that the Waco Bicycle club built last week for the benefit of this race.

“This course was so much fun.  It’s like a long dance, up-and-down and up-and-down.  You need both hands all the time because there are so many turns, and there is never a long flat section where you can catch your breath, so there’s no time to rest,” said Bucher.  “I expected Shonny to catch me on the bike and we’d battle on the run, but I didn’t look back.  I couldn’t look back.  So, it was nice to come to the finish line and see that nobody was there.”

“She rode really well,” said Vanlandingham of Bucher.  “Her power to weight ratio is amazing, and this bike is just incredible.  It’s like a rollercoaster – really fun.”

McQuaid held on for third despite a hard charging Emma Garrard who posted the fastest run split and finished a career-best fourth, followed by Jeffrey in fifth.  Austin, Texas native Shae Rainer finished sixth, and in her first XTERRA race ever, Christie Sym of Australia finished seventh.

After the race Sym came up to Vanlandingham and said, “can you teach me how to ride like that!”  To which, Shonny replied, “sure, if you can teach me how to swim like that.”

Pro Men

Pl Name Age Hometown Time Pts Purse
1 Conrad Stoltz 36 Stellenbosch, South Africa 2:02:21 100 $1,800
2 Josiah Middaugh 31 Vail, Colorado 2:05:26 90 $1,250
3 Nicolas Lebrun 36 Digne, France 2:06:30 82 $800
4 Craig Evans 32 Hendersonville, Tennessee 2:08:09 75 $500
5 Ryan DeCook 29 Rochester, Michigan 2:11:02 69 $400
6 Cody Waite 31 Lakewood, Colorado 2:13:38 63 $300
7 Branden Rakita 29 Manitou Springs, Colorado 2:15:31 58 $200
8 Will Kelsay 28 Boulder, Colorado 2:16:11 53
9 Trevor Glavin 30 San Diego, California 2:19:27 49
10 Scott Gall 35 Cedar Falls, Iowa 2:19:40 45

Also:  Matt Boobar (41),  Damian Gonzalez (37),  Grayson Keppler (34)

Pro Women

Pl Name Age Hometown Time Pts Purse
1 Renata Bucher 32 Lucerne, Switzerland 2:17:59 100 $1,800
2 Shonny Vanlandingham 40 Durango, Colorado 2:20:14 90 $1,250
3 Melanie McQuaid 36 Victoria, B.C., Canada 2:23:48 82 $800
4 Emma Garrard 28 Truckee, California 2:27:46 75 $500
5 Christine Jeffrey 37 Guelph, Ontario, Canada 2:28:03 69 $400
6 Shae Rainer 30 Austin, Texas 2:28:12 63 $300
7 Christie Sym 26 Sydney, Australia 2:34:04 58 $200
8 Tracy Thelen 30 Colorado Springs, Colorado 2:49:21 53

 

XTERRA Pro Series Standing After First Two Races

Men

Pl Name 1 2 Total
1 Conrad Stoltz, RSA 100 100 200
2 Josiah Middaugh, USA 90 90 180
3 Nico Lebrun, FRA 69 82 151
4 Craig Evans, USA 58 75 133
5 Cody Waite, USA 63 63 126
6 Ryan DeCook, USA 49 69 118
7 Branden Rakita, USA 45 58 103
8 Trevor Glavin, USA 53 49 102
9 Brian Smith, USA 82 DNR 82
10 Seth Wealing, USA 75 DNR 75
11 Damian Gonzalez, USA 31 37 68
12 Will Kelsay, USA DNP 53 53
13 Scott Gall, USA DNR 45 45
14 Julian Langer, AUT 41 DNR 41
15 Matt Boobar, USA DNR 41 41
16 Jordan Bryden, CAN 37 DNR 37
17 Brad Zoller, USA 34 DNR 34
18 Grayson Keppler, RSA DNR 34 34
19 Sean Bechtel, CAN 28 DNR 28

Women

Pl Name 1 2 Total
1 Shonny Vanlandingham, USA 100 90 190
2 Melanie McQuaid, CAN 90 82 172
3 Renata Bucher, SUI 63 100 163
4 Christine Jeffrey, CAN 75 69 144
5 Emma Garrard, USA 58 75 133
6 Tracy Thelen, USA 49 53 102
7 Lesley Paterson, GBR 82 DNR 82
8 Rosemarie Gerspacher, CAN 69 DNR 69
9 Shae Rainer, USA DNR 63 63
10 Christie Sym, AUS DNR 58 58
11 Sara Tarkington, USA 53 DNR 53
12 Daz Parker, GBR 45 DNR 45
13 Katie Ellis, USA 41 DNR 41
14 Fabiola Corona, MEX 37 DNR 37

1 = XTERRA West Championship (Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort, NV) – April 25
2 = XTERRA South Central Championship (Waco, TX) – May 23
3 = XTERRA Southeast Championship (Pelham, AL) – June 13
4 = XTERRA East Championship (Richmond, VA) – June 20
5 = XTERRA Mountain Championship (Beaver Creek, CO) – July 17
6 = XTERRA USA Championship (Ogden/Snowbasin, UT) – Sept. 25

Key: 1=100, 2=90, 3=82, 4=75, 5=69, 6=63, 7-58, 8=53, 9=49, 10=45, 11=41, 12=37, 13=34, 14=31, 15=28