Caveman takes 40th XTERRA win at Alabama

It’s Stoltz  fifth straight win in Shelby County, third straight on this year’s America Tour, and 40th career XTERRA championship victory.

“Impressive, isn’t it,” said Dan Hugo, 25, who finished in second place just 19 seconds behind his fellow countryman to make it a 1-2 showing for Stellenbosch, South Africa.  “You must give credit where credit is due, and what Conrad did today was impressive.  When he needs to produce a good swim, he does.  When he needs a strong run, he delivers.  He doesn’t make mistakes on the bike.  He’s seemingly flawless. I guess 20 years of experience will do that for you.”

What really did it for Stoltz was a great swim that had him out of the water within seconds of the leaders Craig Evans, Branden Rakita, and Seth Wealing, and the fastest bike of the day that was two minutes quicker than Hugo and four minutes better than the one guy most likely to catch him on the run, Josiah Middaugh.

Stoltz caught Craig Evans on the bike at about the 2.5 mile mark and the two rode together for a few miles before Stoltz pulled away and starting putting time on the field.  Hugo caught Evans to move into second at about the halfway mark on the bike but never did see Stoltz in front of him.  Indeed, Stoltz was out of sight to all but the spectators who lined the tricky “blood rock” downhill section and the crowd gathered at the transition area.

Hugo did reel the “Caveman” in quite a bit on the run to close the gap and had him in his sights at the Oak Mountain Dam with just a few miles to go but Stoltz was steady and calculating, exerting just the right amount of effort to win without inflicting too much punishment on his body.

“Going fast is painful,” explained Stoltz with a grin to the Shelby County Reporter journalist post-race.

From Hugo’s perspective, “I couldn’t have run 30 seconds faster. My dehydration level was near the edge.  It’s a fun course, but so testing.  On the bike you have to concentrate the entire time. You can’t drink water or take your eyes off the trail for a second.  It’s very intense, out-of-the-ordinary intense because the penalty for losing your focus is disaster.  And as much as I loved the run because of the beauty and all the different elements, I was begging for it to end.”

Middaugh had the third-best bike and fastest run by nearly a minute to catch Craig Evans on the run and move into third place.

“I’m happy with my bike handling skills considering I still haven’t ridden on dirt at home yet,” said Middaugh, who drove through a snowstorm from Vail, Colorado to the Denver airport on Thursday.

Craig Evans (pictured) had his best race of the season, and his fourth straight top six finish at Oak Mountain, to place fourth.  Frenchman Nico Lebrun got past a nasty sickness that sidelined him at Santa Cruz last week to finish in fifth.   Rounding out the top 10 Cody Waite (6th), Patrick Valentine (8th), Jason Michalak (9th), and Adam Wirth (10th) all had their best showings of the season and Branden Rakita’s seventh-place finish was strong enough to keep him in third-position in the XTERRA Pro Series standings.

Pl    Name    Age    Hometown    Time    Pts    Purse
1    Conrad Stoltz    37    Stellenbosch, South Africa    2:22:22    100    $1,800
2    Dan Hugo    25    Stellenbosch, South Africa    2:22:41    90    $1,250
3    Josiah Middaugh    32    Vail, Colorado    2:26:05    82    $800
4    Craig Evans    33    Hendersonville, Tennessee    2:27:40    75    $500
5    Nicolas Lebrun    38    Digne, France    2:30:52    69    $400
6    Cody Waite    32    Lakewood, Colorado    2:31:44    63    $300
7    Branden Rakita    30    Manitou Springs, Colorado    2:33:15    58    $200
8    Patrick Valentine    25    Colorado Springs, Colorado    2:33:40    53
9    Jason Michalak    33    Lakewood, Colorado    2:34:52    49
10    Adam Wirth    32    Boise, Idaho    2:36:39    45
Also:  Trevor Glavin (41),  Matt Boobar (37), Damian Gonzalez (34)

McQUAID FOLLOWS THE “CONRAD TAPER” PLAN TO VICTORY
With simply not enough hours in the day to get in all the training and racing involved with Melanie McQuaid’s ambitious XTERRA and Ironman 70.3 racing schedule, the three-time XTERRA World Champ decided to give Stoltz back-to-back race weekends training strategy a shot.

“I was on the Conrad taper, which pretty much meant putting my feet up,” said McQuaid, who picked up her third win in four tries on the XTERRA America Tour this year.  “I didn’t’ do much at all and it worked.  I’m feeling a lot better since Santa Cruz last week.”

McQuaid was a lot faster than last week as well, and picked up her third win at Oak Mountain since 2006.  She came out of the water in second-place a little more than two minutes behind Christine “Big Fish” Jeffrey and put the hammer down on the bike to take the lead about a quarter-way through and never looked back.

“It took everything I had because this is a really competitive, deep field. I was riding with pro men and still get out-split on the bike by two girls,” said McQuaid at the awards ceremony, referring to Shonny Vanlandingham (pictured), last year’s winner who had the fastest split today, along with Renata Bucher who was in second-place until Vanlandingham caught her at about mile two of the run.  McQuaid, like Stoltz, also had high praise for the course and community.

“This course is really fun, and what off-road tri courses should be like – a legit swim, true mountain bike course, and super challenging trail run.  It’s a very worthy venue, and the people here in the south are the nicest you’ll find anywhere.  It’s just an awesome, inviting community and so fun to get to enjoy life southern style for a while like this.”

Indeed the courtesy and respect for one another could be found everywhere – from the amazing volunteers from Team in Training and the local community that came early and stayed late, to the racers who went out of their way to say please and thank you with every pass.

For Vanlandingham, defending her Southeast Championship title got tough early when she went out too fast in the swim.

“I felt like it was my first group swim.  I went so hard because I wanted to be in the pack and just blew up and ended up having to backstroke for a little bit,” said Vanlandingham, who came out of the water more than four minutes behind McQuaid.  “I was laughing at myself, but it wasn’t that funny because I ended up further back than normal.”

Despite the setback the reigning XTERRA World Champ rallied to post the fastest bike and run splits, but it wasn’t enough to catch McQuaid who was fast all around.

“Melanie just puts it all together.  That’s what she does really well – putting together all three disciplines.  I tell you what though; I am going to Nashville, Tennessee right after this so Craig Evans can help me with some swim training,” smiled Vanlandingham, who finished in second-place 1:33 behind McQuaid.

PRO MEN

Pl    Name    West    Scentral    Pacific    S’East    Total
1    Conrad Stoltz    90    100    100    100    390
2    Josiah Middaugh    100    90    75    82    347
3    Branden Rakita    82    69    69    58    278
4    Craig Evans    41    63    53    75    232
5    Seth Wealing    58    82    82    DNF    222
6    Nicolas Lebrun    75    75    DNR    69    219
7    Trevor Glavin    53    58    63    41    215
8    Cody Waite    49    45    58    63    215
9    Dan Hugo    DNR    DNR    90    90    180
10    Shiloh Mielke    37    41    41    DNF    119
11    Chris Stehula    69    DNR    49    DNS    118
12    Adam Wirth    34    37    DNF    45    116
13    Jason Michalak    28    34    DNR    49    111
14    Patrick Valentine    DNP    49    DNR    53    102
15    Damian Gonzalez    DNP    28    34    34    96
16    Jim Thijs    63    DNR    DNR    DNS    63
17    Will Ross    DNR    53    DNR    DNS    53
18    Brian Smith    45    DNR    DNR    DNS    45
19    Eric Clarkson    DNR    DNR    45    DNS    45
20    Barry Wicks    DNR    DNR    37    DNS    37
21    Matt Boobar    DNR    DNP    DNR    37    37
22    Brad Zoller    31    DNR    DNR    DNS    31
23    Will Kelsay    DNP    31    DNR    DNS    31

PRO WOMEN

Pl    Name    West    Scentral    Pacific    S’East    Total
1    Melanie McQuaid    100    100    69    100    369
2    Shonny Vanlandingham    90    90    75    90    345
3    Christine Jeffrey    82    82    63    75    302
4    Emma Garrard    63    69    82    69    283
5    Suzie Snyder    58    75    58    58    249
6    Jessica Noyola    53    63    53    63    232
7    Renata Bucher    DNR    DNR    90    82    172
8    Tracy Thelen    45    58    DNR    53    156
9    Caroline Colonna    DNR    53    49    49    151
10    Lesley Paterson    DNR    DNR    100    DNS    100
11    Kelley Cullen    75    DNR    DNR    DNS    75
12    Danelle Kabush    69    DNR    DNR    DNS    69
13    Rosemarie Gerspacher    49    DNR    DNR    DNS    49
14    Stella Carey    DNR    DNR    45    DNS    45