Posts Tagged ‘World champion’
Above foto by Jeroen Tibbe.
My 7th World title. It didnt sink in till the last kilometer. So proud. Happy. More like exstatic. I’m blessed with an amazing career. Wonderfully supportive sponsors. Genes- I’m turning 40 in October and still winning. (thanks Mom and Dad) Rocket scientist coach Ian Rodger. My wife Liezel. So much goes into this job/life/career, its hard to phantom and acknowledge all in a paragraph or even a blog. It really reaches deep.
For example- the guy in the purple shirt with the big smile- his name is Andre de Beer from Pretoria, South Africa. (raced AG earlier in the day) From when I was 14 and onwards, (thats 1988) my dad and I did douzens of triathlons in Verwoerdburg (now Centurion) organized by Andre de Beer. We also raced together back then. (I still remember pacing advice he once gave me.) He is one of the many many people who helped form my career. Seeing his smile and shaking his hand in thanks afterwards is just one of the many things which give me shivers and makes me realize the intricacy of life, never mind success.
A quick race recap- full blog coming soon:
Thanks to some “specialized” equipment, (pun intended) #aeroiseverything Specialized Evade helmet, TT bars (on a mountain bike?!) crazy wheel/tire setup, a few clever lines, some skills, some luck and a lot of hard pedaling and serious suffering, I caught the leaders (Ben Allen in pic above) on the 1st lap of 4 and made some good time on almost everyone.
Beach racing is much tougher than I expected. My legs were broken towards the end of the bike, and looking at the bike splits behind me, everyone was broken.
More pix on Beach Challenge.
Barging into the long soft, deep, sandy sections, you need all the speed you can get off the stairs. With 12 psi in the tires, it becomes a circus act. Remember Caveman-ism, “Speed is your friend…”
I did have to keep my eye on 2008 XTERRA World Champ, Ruben Ruzafa, who was 1.15 down going into the 9km sandy slog through the dunes. Also referred to as “the run leg.” After one lap (of 3) I only gave up 5 seconds on the lighter Spaniard, and knew I had the race in the bag. The last few km I made sure to enjoy the people and especially the emotions. I thought of Burry Stander (his mom, Mandie sent a special message “remember Burry is there with you” the night before) I thought of my dad who would have LOVED my 7th World title. I thought of my Creator and the way He has blessed my life, and I thought about my wife Liezel who often puts even more into my career than I do…
Like this pic above. More about my equipment and “how many knobbies on a 2.3 Specialized Renegade tire?”, tire cutting and strategy in the next blog….
In the meantime, hats off to Ruben, Brice and everyone who did battle on the dunes of Kijkduin, Holland.
Interesting how the podium is a mixing pot of athletes from various disciplines:
From L to R: 2nd- Ruben Ruzafa- long time professional Mountain Bike racer, now 70.3 and off road triathlete. 1st long time Caveman from Duathlon, ITU Olympic dist, Olympic non drafting, off road triathlon and some MTB background. 3rd Brice Daubord– ITU Olympic dist athlete.
| Pos | First Name | Last Name | Country | Time | Swim | T1 | Bike | T2 | Run | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Conrad | Stoltz | RSA |  |
02:01:38 | 00:10:05 | 00:01:03 | 01:11:08 | 00:00:29 | 00:38:54 |
| 2 | Ruben | Ruzafa | ESP |  |
02:01:52 | 00:10:21 | 00:01:07 | 01:11:56 | 00:00:29 | 00:38:02 |
| 3 | Brice | Daubord | FRA |  |
02:02:37 | 00:09:48 | 00:00:57 | 01:14:43 | 00:00:25 | 00:36:46 |
| 4 | Kris | Coddens | BEL |  |
02:03:04 | 00:11:36 | 00:01:13 | 01:12:32 | 00:00:25 | 00:37:20 |
| 5 | Gonzalo Raul | Tellechea | ARG |  |
02:03:15 | 00:10:10 | 00:01:03 | 01:15:20 | 00:00:32 | 00:36:11 |
| 6 | Tomas | Jurkovic | SVK |  |
02:03:30 | 00:10:20 | 00:01:10 | 01:13:50 | 00:00:24 | 00:37:48 |
| 7 | Victor Manuel | Del Corral Morales | ESP | |
02:03:53 | 00:10:51 | 00:01:04 | 01:15:06 | 00:00:25 | 00:36:30 |
| 8 | Ben | Allen | AUS |  |
02:05:18 | 00:09:22 | 00:00:50 | 01:14:15 | 00:00:31 | 00:40:22 |
| \9 | Paul | Embrechts | BEL | |
02:07:06 | 00:10:44 | 00:01:06 | 01:14:49 | 00:00:31 | 00:39:58 |
| 10 | Diederik | Scheltinga | NED |  |
02:07:15 | 00:10:38 | 00:01:03 | 01:14:51 | 00:00:32 | 00:40:13 |
Click here for full results.
I’m writing this from Rome. I’m racing XTERRA Italy this weekend. We traveled somewhat Caveman style last night- Princess Hotstuff caught some winks in Zurich- with the podium flowers refreshing in a ClifBar water bottle on the side.
More adventures (and a proper Cross Tri blog) to come…
Conrad Stoltz is first ITU Cross Triathlon World Champion!
Bravo Conrad!
Conrad won with an amazing bike split with 3min 29 secs advantage over second Seth Wealing!
Check out full PDF results here and race reports at Triathlon.org and Tri247.
Conrad will write the race report soon 🙂
Conrad Stoltz XTERRA World Champion 2010
Conrad Stoltz is XTERRA World Champion 2010!
This is his fourth title!
Bravo Conrad!
Amazing swim, most amazing bike and great run.
South African Specialized rider, Burry Stander, wins u23 World MTB title
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
