Time for a thread on that other Hawaii world championship. Xterra world champs in Maui!

I know Xterra doesn’t have the following of the original, but this race has been going on for 22 years now.

I know I asked this in the facebook group, but those threads die down so quickly. Any other Xterra racers in here? I know I heard @Jonathan mention he was interested in doing one some day, and being there by Tahoe, there is still an annual race being held on the old national championship course is still there, with the bike portion having significant sections on the flume trail.

The sport definitely doesn’t have the swimming commitment as the road disciplines since there’s such a big separation between really good mountain bikers and average riders, while on the road that might mean 5-6 minutes, on trails that can mean 10-15 minutes. The swims are usually 1500m or less, but are supposed to be 30k on the bike for the big regional/national races. Although some of the swims can have their own challenges, as the old Richmond race usually had either flood stage levels, or you were dodging the rocks during a drought. And the Maui swim is a rough water beach start where there is a pretty crazy shorebreak, doing an Australian M, so you get to go through a 5-10 foot surf 4 times.

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I’m coached by and occasionally train with Leslie Paterson and she is on point this year. Since Duffy isn’t racing (at least I don’t think she is because of injury), my money is on Les. Mauricio Mendez is also my pick on the men’s side.

I don’t know a great deal about Xterra and the like but a friend of mine is racing in the M30-35 cat so I’ll be keeping an eye on him.

As an aside I’ve got Lesley’s book to read at some point, it’s been on my Kindle for a few weeks for when I get round to it.

Great book! The audio one is better because of her and Si’s accents.

It should be a good race this year with some strong contenders

Nice, would be cool to interact with her on a regular basis. My first impression of her came from this old video someone posted on Slowtwitch a few years back.

For the men’s race, not sure why Weiss wouldn’t be my pick. He’s been coming on strong the past few years. I wonder of Ruzafa will be contending again this year, he’s been up at the top for quite a few years.

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Oh this is my dream race. I have 2 very young children at the moment so just focusing on 6 hours of cycling training per week.

I love the thought of triathlon and want to set goals in Xterra but I just couldn’t manage the training with a young family just yet AND it looks like the Xterra race in NSW Australia isn’t running anymore.

I reckon this is a 4 year goal! In saying this I’m loving my MTB training and I have my first season race this Wednesday…I can’t wait to see how I do.

Back to Xterra
I’m unsure why this race isn’t hugely popular. It looks awesome. Maybe because you need to have some triathlon skill AND be interested in off road.

Just got a tweet from xterra offroad. I almost forgot about suzie snyder. She was local to my area, but now she hails from Reno. I wonder if she does someof the mtb races in the Reno/tahoe area. I of course will be pulling for the lone American who’s a real contender in this year’s field.

Time for some more videos!

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Live coverage just starting…

All that mud!

Highlight video!

Yes, lots and lots of mud.

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