XTERRA Waco Texas and my 38th XTERRA career win

XTERRA Wac o- my 38th career win. A close one: Josiah was just 6sec back and Seth 15″

Story from XTERRAplanet.com

[(Cameron Park – Waco, TX) – South African Conrad “the Caveman” Stoltz won his record-breaking 38th career championship on a picture-perfect, breezy, 75-degree afternoon at Cameron Park in Waco, Texas today.

It took every ounce of energy he had to make it happen as just 15 seconds separated the top three men.  American Josiah Middaugh was more than three minutes behind Stoltz at the bike-to-run transition but made up all but eight seconds by the finish line.

“I looked behind me with about one kilometer to go and just saw these elbows and knees coming at me and knew I had to kick into another gear so Josiah wouldn’t catch me,” said Stoltz.

Middaugh, however, had already put it into his highest gear as he was in a full sprint the last mile trying to chase the Caveman down and simply couldn’t go any faster.

“I ran really, really hard on that run and when I caught Seth he stayed with me on the flats and we picked up the pace together and closed in on Conrad but I had already been sprinting when he turned around and saw me behind him so there was no turbo button left to push to close the gap that last half-mile,” said Middaugh, who posted the fastest 5.5-mile run in 34:50, more than a minute better than Wealing’s run split.

While Middaugh nearly won the race on the run, Stoltz did indeed win the race on the bike.  He crushed the technical 15-mile, limestone and bamboo covered course in 1:05:59, nearly three minutes faster than the next best split.

At about mile 12 with Queen’s “Another one bites the dust” blasting in the woods where the crowd gathered at the Mix Master section of the bike Stoltz came flying down a skinny downhill forested trail called baseball at break-neck speed  setting off a chorus of “wow’s” from the spectators.

Up until that point Stoltz was playing catch up.  He came out of the water in sixth place more than a minute-thirty behind the leaders Branden Rakita, Seth Wealing, and Craig Evans who were riding strong.

It took a while, but once Stoltz got in his groove at about the halfway point it was just like the song … “and another one gone and another one gone, another one bites the dust” until hey, he caught Seth too and moved into the lead.

“It wasn’t a perfect race for me, that’s for sure.  With this kind of technical stuff you really have to focus and ride smooth when the pressure is on and I had some hiccups today,” said Stoltz.  “It was kinda funny at one point I had just passed Seth Wealing and I dropped my chain on an uphill and was running up the hill trying to put it back and Seth is heckling me from behind saying ‘what’s a matter old man, can’t climb this stuff anymore.’”

A win is a win, but this one was special for Stoltz as he eclipsed Jamie Whitmore’s long-standing mark of 37 career championship victories and now holds yet another XTERRA milestone (he’s also the only pro to win four XTERRA World Titles).

Always the sportsman, Stoltz acknowledged that had “J-Dawg” not come down with cancer forcing an early retirement from her pro career back in 2007 he’d still be chasing the gutzy tri girl from Northern California.

Wealing (pictured) was fast and in the mix from beginning to end to finish third, just seven seconds behind Middaugh. Nicolas Lebrun was solid all day and nailed the run to pass Branden Rakita just before the finish line to place fourth for the second week in-a-row.  Rakita, who led the race for about the first hour, finished in the top five for the second straight week.

Craig Evans held on for sixth, with Trevor Glavin getting the last money spot in seventh place.  Young-gun Will Ross from Anchorage, Alaska was impressive in his first pro race, placing eighth, while Patrick Valentine (9th) and Cody Waite rounded out the top 10.

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