Conrad Stoltz XTERRA Triathlete - Page 41 of 525

conrad-stoltz-caveman-xterra-usa-champion-2001

STOLTZ – A DECADE OF EXCELLENCE- a pre race write up borrowed from XTERRAplanet.com– race report to follow soon.

Conrad Stoltz won his first XTERRA USA Championship race in 2001, just a few days after September 11, wearing purple shorts and a blue tank top.

“I couldn’t dream of winning the series. It is my first year, I am still on a borrowed bike and I didn’t think the Tahoe course suited me,” said the rookie from Stellenbosch, South Africa that day. The victory gave him just enough points to leapfrog past Mike Vine and Nico Lebrun and win the XTERRA U.S. Pro Series title.

A month later Stoltz was wearing those same purple shorts, but sported a Specialized top for the first time on his way to winning his first of four XTERRA World Championships in Maui. More than a decade later Stoltz is still Specialized, and still the man … the “Caveman”.

conrad-stoltz-caveman-xterra-halfmoonbay-2001

Since ’01 Stoltz is the winningest XTERRA pro of all-time with 47 championship victories, and has won the XTERRA U.S. Pro Series nine of the past 11 years (Sylvain Dodet won the Series in ’04, Seth Wealing in ’06).

If Stoltz has a weak-spot, however, it could be this course.

“It’s the anti-Conrad course because there’s 3,400-feet of climbing, not a whole lot of descending, and I’m 180 pounds so it is especially challenging for me,” Stoltz has said since the XTERRA Mountain Championship race moved to Snowbasin back in 2006.

Still, he’s won here twice – in 2008 and 2010 – and at a similarly profiled XTERRA championship course at Beaver Creek Resort in Avon, Colorado in July he dominated. A win on Saturday would keep his goal of a perfect season intact and deliver his unprecedented 10th Pro Series crown.

Standing in his way is a quartet of XTERRA veterans including the defending champion Nico Lebrun from France, America’s best Josiah Middaugh, Aussie Chris Legh, and David Henestrosa from Spain.

Lebrun has won two of the last three here in Utah, and captured last year’s crown in perhaps the most-hyped XTERRA race of all-time as the world turned its attention to Utah to see how Lance Armstrong would perform in his return to triathlon. Armstrong was 5th behind Lebrun, Dan Hugo, Middaugh, and Stoltz.

This year the Frenchman, nicknamed the “Professor” for his calculated racing IQ, spent the summer in his hometown, got married, and won the XTERRA Italy, Czech, and Switzerland championships en route to his fourth XTERRA European Tour title. His prowess in the mountains – rooted in a childhood spent climbing around the French Alps – is legendary.

For Middaugh, a 7-time XTERRA National Champ, its unfinished business. He’s been in the top five here for five straight years – placing 3rd in each of the last three years since Snowbasin became home to the U.S. Championships. Despite these results, each year has come with adversity – from sickness to mechanicals – although to his credit Middaugh has never made any of it an excuse. One can only think that on a day when it all came together, he would be the man to beat on this course.

Legh – the star of the famous Gatorade commercial – has made a career of triathlon with nearly 100 professional wins and most recently the IM 70.3 Lake Stevens title in July. He did his first XTERRA more than 10 years ago, has had the fastest run split on Maui four times, and this year was 4th at the XTERRA West Championship (behind Stoltz, Middaugh, and Dan Hugo) and third at the ITU Cross Triathlon World Championship (behind Stoltz and Craig Evans). This course, which rewards endurance, seems particularly suited to Legh, although he’s never raced here.

Henestrosa, who was featured on the front page of today’s Ogden Standard-Examiner, won the XTERRA Italy Championship back in 2004, moved to nearby Clearfield, Utah a few years ago where he now teaches at a Spanish-immersion school, and had the fastest run of anyone on this course last year. He jumped back into racing the XTERRA U.S. Series this year and has done well, most recently placing 4th at the highly competitive mountain championship in Colorado. With home-course advantage and a run that could chase down even the speediest of contenders – he’s one to watch.

There are another dozen elites who shouldn’t be overlooked, like Ben Allen – an uber-fast swimmer who’s won XTERRA championships in Guam, Saipan, the Philippines and New Zealand this year – and the U.S. XTERRA contingent featuring Craig Evans, Branden Rakita, Will Kelsay, Cody Waite, Adam Wirth, Will Ross, Damian Gonzalez, and Ryan Ignatz.