Posted: July 4, 2005

Triathlon: Stoltz, Whitmore Win In Richmond

RICHMOND, VA – Conrad “the Caveman” Stoltz likely broke his left hand in a crash half-way through the bike course and still managed to put 4:31 on his nearest competitor, Olympian Brian McMahon from Canada, en route to winning the Nissan Xterra East Championship on a hot and sunny afternoon in Richmond, Virginia.

In the women's race reigning XTERRA World Champ Jamie Whitmore picked the right running line on the rocks to edge arch rival and last year’s Richmond champion Melanie McQuaid by just 36 seconds.

Stoltz absolutely blazed what competitors are calling one of the most epic mountain bike courses they’ve ever ridden. His split of 1:08:30 on the 18-mile course that looped through the James River Park System was more than four minutes faster than anyone else, despite taking the spill that smashed his left hand.

“It happened half-way through Forest Hill,” said Stoltz. “I spent six hours on this course practicing so I knew it really well and was pushing hard through a loose turn and just washed out and my hand was on the bar when I fell to the ground. When I picked my bike up and felt the stinging pain, I knew immediately it could be broken.”

The two-time XTERRA World Champion (2001-02) felt it most when he’d stand or lift his bike up, but it wasn’t enough to slow him down.

The race started with McMahon cutting though the funky half-mile zigzag swim in the James River like a torpedo, exiting the water in just 11:41.

“I didn’t even see him in the swim he went out so fast,” said Stoltz, who was 6th out of the water and thought he took the lead on the bike after passing Seth Wealing and Olivier Marceau early on the course. “Then someone said I was 25 seconds back and I thought ‘no, no, I’m in the lead’, but further on a bit I saw a dust cloud. I kept riding hard and the next thing I saw was Brent up the road…he was the dust cloud.”

The short swim didn’t allow the strong swimming McMahon enough of a cushion on the bike to hold off Stoltz.

“I know Conrad is a much better biker than me, he’s got bigger legs and I can’t match his power,” explained McMahon about why he didn’t try to stay with Stoltz once he caught up. “If I were to try and go with him I would pay for it later on so I just concentrated on keeping form and riding well because if I try to go above my ability and ride with him, I’ll just end up making mistakes.”

The strategy worked as the newcomer made no mistakes and held his spot in second throughout. Behind him Olivier Marceau, who was victorious at XTERRA Czech and XTERRA Italy the last two weekends, rode in a chase pack that included Jason Chalker, Andrew Noble, and Seth Wealing.

Marceau, who didn’t arrive in Richmond until 9pm the night before the race after a comical bit of traveling from France to Washington D.C. to Richmond on a plain, train, and bus, did all he could do to hold on for third as Wealing and Noble crossed the finish line in fourth and fifth just 19 and 33 seconds behind.

“I’m very happy with 3rd place because even if I had arrived earlier I couldn’t have beat Conrad, he was too strong,” said Marceau. “It was very good mountain bike course, and very good run course. It’s strange because we are in the city and I was wondering where I could find natural area, and it’s amazing these trails.”

Seth Wealing had a tremendous race for fourth. It was at XTERRA three years ago where he got his start in pro racing before World Cup racing pulled him away.

“I’ve always had a lot of fun doing this,” said Wealing. “All the people want everybody to win and nobody wants to see anybody fail. It’s a special thing. Plus, this is a great course. A lot of turns, a lot of acceleration, little short hills.”

Andrew Noble had his best XTERRA in years, posting the fourth best bike split and podium finish.

For Stoltz it marks his second straight win in the Nissan Xterra Championship Series, giving him the early lead in the five-stop series. It also breaks a string of three runner-up finishes for him in Richmond (2001, 2003, 2004). Last year he was run down by Sylvain Dodet in the last mile, in ’03 he fell to Nicolas Lebrun in what turned out to be a duathlon after the swim was canceled due to the raging river, in ’02 he couldn’t make the race because he got stuck in customs, and here is what he had to say about the first year:

“This race is really special to me. Back in 2001 I was just an innocent roadie thinking I had reached the pinnacle of triathlon going to the Olympic games and I came to Richmond for my first XTERRA,” said Stoltz to an appreciative and attentive awards ceremony crowd. “I borrowed this 35-pound soft ride bike a week before the race and came out just to see what XTERRA was all about, and I must admit that race blew me away. Mike Vine won, I got second, third was Ned Overend, and fourth was Steve Larsen. After the race Steve and Ned came over to me and said ‘welcome to XTERRA, great to see you’. The people were so friendly and I had such a good time and such fun racing here at XTERRA that it became my goal. I’ve really lost my heart to XTERRA.”

Women’S Race

Practice paid off for Jamie Whitmore as she notched her first win of the season after four consecutive runner-up finishes in Saipan, Temecula, Czech, and Italy to start 2005.

The reigning XTERRA European, USA, and World Champ put in the time on the rock-hopping portion of the run prior to the race to get the best route wired, and that was the difference.

“There’s this big field of rocks and periodically there’s an arrow,” explained runner-up Melanie McQuaid, who had 1:20 on Whitmore heading out on the run. “There’s one line that’s fast where you’re actually running on rocks and then there’s the line that I took where you’re messed-up and you have to run through water and jump back up on rocks or go way around the long way. I ended up with my feet in the water the wrong way a couple times, got lost in the rocks, and lost a lot of time.”

A lot of time, and the lead she held until just past halfway through the run course when they hit what locals call the “Dry Way”. Interestingly, it was the same exact mistake Jamie Whitmore made last year.

“I fell in a trench and went the wrong way twice and learned a lesson, because there are places out there where you can’t continue on and I had completely lost it in that section,” said Whitmore. “So this year I worked on it and once I got into the rock hopping section I knew where to go. There was going to be no stopping me at that point. I came out behind her (McQuaid) and shot out on a different line and I just bee-lined it straight to the ladder.”

Until that point McQuaid looked sharp and in charge, posting the fastest bike split and pushing a good pace on the run. Whitmore was riding well herself and was less than a minute behind most of the time, with Melissa Thomas, Candy Angle, Jess Harrison and Renata Bucher not too far back.

The women’s pro field has never been stronger and the battle for 3rd through 6th was a thriller. Jess Harrison came out of the water first with Candy Angle right behind. Melissa Thomas and Renata Bucher came out much later but both had great bike’s to get back in the mix. Thomas came off the bike in third but got chased down by Angle, Harrison, and Bucher.

Angle had the second best run of the day to take third place for the third consecutive year (and for the third year it’s been the world champs – Angle ‘02, McQuaid ’03, Whitmore ’04 – in the top three spots here).

Bucher caught Harrison and Thomas on the run…twice. Twice Bucher went off-course, and Harrison took advantage of the resulting weary legs to overtake her in the last 50-meters of the run for fourth place.

Whitmore and McQuaid have now finished 1-2 in 12 of their last 13 XTERRA meetings (their string was broken by Bucher at XTERRA Czech two weeks ago). Whitmore holds a 7-5 advantage during that span.

Both agreed on the course being world-class… “It’s turny and twisty and there’s roots everywhere. It’s just plain out fun. I could ride this course everyday, it’s that fun,” said Whitmore.

“Pure fun from start to finish. They’ve done so much amazing work here. This is the best mountain bike course I’ve ever ridden on, anywhere. It’s awesome,” concurred McQuaid.

Complete results are available at: XTERRAPlanet.com.