foto by Rich Cruse

foto by Osamu Chiba

It feels good to be me. I won XTERRA West Championships in Temecula by about 4 minutes.

Here is the story from www.xterraplanet.com

Conrad “the Caveman” Stoltz of South Africa powered through the grueling XTERRA West Championship course at Vail Lake Resort in Temecula Valley in two hours and 28 minutes to win the first of four regional championships on the XTERRA America Tour today.

The 6-foot-3, 180-pound XTERRA machine was in the first pack of racers to finish the 1-mile swim in the warm waters (roughly 66-degrees) of Vail Lake, absolutely crushed the bike with the fastest split of the day in one-hour, 26 minutes, and posted the fifth-best run in 41:23. His winning time was more than three minutes faster than runner-up Mike Vine from Canada.

“It was a great day, a great course,” said Stoltz, a two-time Olympic triathlete. “I felt good today but this result is really surprising. I spent the off-season doing a lot of construction work building a house and a pool. Came into this race at about 80% fitness with the plan to peak for the October races. I’m trying not to get too excited because it’s a long season, but am still very happy with the result.”

The victory reasserted Stoltz’ presence at XTERRA and solidified his stature as the man to beat if he’s healthy. It was also a feel good story for all of those in the XTERRA family that watched the two-time XTERRA World Champ suffer through a 2006 season filled with injuries that culminated with a devastating pre-race crash at the USA Championships in October.