XTERRA Utah 08

Saturday I will toe the line for my 7th XTERRA USA Series title. The Series title points to consistency throughout the season. After consistently winning a few races earlier this year, I got a nail through the tire in Idaho, and cut my foot in Richmond. (go here to see those juicy pics again) Those setbacks, (setback seems to be  a Caveman consistency in itself) means that the points are closer than I would like. I really dislike this course- its lots of climbing and a little bit of down hilling.  2800ft of down hilling is lost with this point to point race up the site of the 2006 Winter Olympic Super G course.

That said, Ogden is a great town, the people are really welcoming and the scenery is amazing. The trees are turning red and yellow on the mountain slopes. The Utah Sports commission is putting a lot of money into promoting sport and sports events in the state, and they are quickly building a sportsman destination reputation.

I borrowed this piece below from the www.XTERRAplanet.com newsletter. For press info, and pics, say you are a journalist and want to be placed on the mailing list, email Trey Garman.   For video on previous XTERRA races, go to www.XTERRA.TV

“It all comes down to this.  The 8-stop XTERRA Cup Series for professionals that started in early May wraps up with the ultimate showdown of XTERRA’s best on Saturday, Sept. 26 in Utah.   And when we say the best, we mean it as the top 13 ranked men and women are on the start list – the lone exception being fourth-ranked Dan Hugo who just suffered through two weeks of a severe flu and painstakingly decided to stay home in South Africa to build an 8-month-base of training so he could tackle 2010 with a vengeance.

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Lukas Flückiger, Julien Absalon, Burry Stander, Ralf Naf, Mathias Flückiger. Champery World Cup podium.

A week after winning the under 23 World Championships in Australia, 22 year old South African Burry beat two time Olympic champion and 4 time World Champion Julien Absalon to win his 1st UCI World Cup victory. (Burry is currently 2nd the the World Cup series behind Julien)

I read on Specialized team mate, Todd Wells’ website that last week Burry’s best lap at Worlds was 40 seconds faster than anyone elses. Granted, the u23 race was shorter and probably had less traffic, but still, it was a sign of things to come. Todd had the 3rd fastest lap and finished 8th on his Specialized S-works 29er.

We are really stoked for Burry.

Follow his blog on i-am-specialized.com

Pictures by Rob Jones and CyclingNews.com

Burry just won his 1st rainbow jersey at UCI MTB Worlds in Australia.  This kid is amazingly talented, really nice, good with business and we will see him go a really long way. He is currently ranked 2nd in the UCI World Cup series.

Burry is a fellow Specialized team mate and Afrikaans speaking South African. Earlier this year we rode the 3 stage Sani2C race as a pair. Read my blog here: Sani2C with Burry

We (he has 1700+ Facebook “friends”!) are really stoked for that rainbow jersey!

I wish I made my breakthrough at 22 instead of 29…

Read the Cyclingnews.com race report here. Stander wins u23 Title Down Under

For starters, and the reader’s benefit, write a short paragraph about yourself:

I’m evading reality but painting a canvas with all the colour I can find. There’s a definite lack of technique, more just splashing lines and blobs of colour and allowing them to take on a story of their own. I was inspired, you see, by this blog’s animate owner. So the canvas is life, and the paint is sport, specifically triathlon, mixed with travel, odd characters, brilliant brands and the dream that perhaps, at the end, the canvas will look like a master piece (which it doesnt right now). I’m 24, feel somewhere between 15 and 40, depending on the time of day and how hungry I am. I base in Stellenbosch South Africa, and Truckee in California when over to the USA.

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