Cant believe its XTERRA Waco time again

Last years’ XTERRA Waco winners. Cowboy Caveman and Renata Bucher 1st big win in the USA the Series. Check out last years fun blog here.

What a great sporting community here in Waco, Texas! The people are amazing. Waco is a perfect XTERRA venue. The course is very technical yet fun, its right down town the locals are really behind it.  Texas is quite a sporty state- so we expect a lot of people from Dallas and Austin coming to check out XTERRA.

Fellow Specialized rider Melanie McQuaid and I did a 3hr clinic and meet and greet at Bicycles Outback last night. A great cycling store immersed in culture, and legendary wrench wrangler Ian Moore fine tuned my S works Specialized Epic 29er for these particular conditions.

Where the fun begins. Words cannot explain the complexity and fun-nes of this XTERRA Waco course. Its probably 95% single track. Now that the weather is cooler, we’ll actually be able to go really fast and enjoy it even more.

XTERRA Waco bike- 20miles of pure goodness.

Special pre race prep Caveman style. Good coffee, my home stays’ kiddie chair with a nice view, a fresh Apple (to refresh the lyrics for “House of the rising sun”) and a good old honkey tonk stringbox.

These really cool Texas winners’ belt buckles were made by the locals and they are HUGE. Like wheel cap size…

The Texas Police is quite something. I think hes calling for backup. A racing thuroughbred?

Here is XTERRAplanet.com s write up:

[At the inaugural XTERRA South Central Championship at Cameron Park last year Conrad “the Caveman” Stoltz strutted across the finish line in a Cowboy hat, tipped it to the crowd in appreciation, and said, “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.”

Indeed, the course suits Stoltz to a tee, and as former XTERRA World Champ Nico Lebrun said, “in this kind of race nobody can beat Conrad.  He’s on another planet on this kind of bike course.”

As such, Stoltz is again the heavy favorite to defend his title at Sunday’s XTERRA South Central Championship in Waco, Texas – the second of six regional championships in the U.S. Pro Series.

“This is one of the most technical of all the courses.  It has short climbs and requires a lot of power so it suits me really well,” said Stoltz at today’s pre-race press briefing.  “What makes this year even more exciting is the weather.  Last year we had the heat,  and I didn’t enjoy the race as much as I should have because it was so hot.  This year the weather is perfect, so I’m really looking forward to it.”

Indeed, this year’s race is a full month earlier in the season than last year’s race date and the weather in Waco has been beautiful – nice and cool in the mornings with highs in the low 80s in the afternoon.

While Stoltz may be the favorite, nobody in the pro field is ready to concede the race just yet. The competition Stoltz will be up against in Waco is as good as it gets in the U.S., with nine of the top 10 racers in last year’s XTERRA U.S. Pro Series and the top four finishers from last weekend’s XTERRA West Championship on the start list.

Heading the contenders list is America’s best hope, Josiah Middaugh from Vail, Colorado.  Middaugh, who ran past Stoltz on a grueling climb to win the West Champs on Sunday, will be the first guy not named Stoltz to wear No. 1 on his bike plate at a U.S. Championship event since 2006.  That’s because Stoltz had won the previous four season-openers and stayed ranked No. 1 en route to winning the last four Series titles.

Middaugh came out of a long winter – in which he won the USAT Winter Triathlon National Championship and North American Snowshoe Championship – in great shape and posted the fastest run in Vegas.  Last year he did this race on very little rest with a 10-day old girl at home.  Still, he had the fastest run and finished second, about three minutes behind Stoltz.

Frenchman Nico Lebrun, the 2005 World Champ, was third here last year and is well conditioned for the rigorous climbing on the bike and run sections of this course. And for all those who fear the speedo, watch out for Tennessee’s Craig Evans who rocked a black speedo into fourth place last year and had the fastest swim split.]