Competitors faced two 12-kilometer laps on one of XTERRA’s most technical bike courses – complete with a variety of built stunts including numerous bridges, skinny’s (little rails about three feet off the ground), and tight, twisting trails through trees and rocks. A 10km trail run followed leading athletes directly uphill and gnarly downhill sections. The technical nature and difficulty of the course was certainly reflected in the finish times.
None of this proved to be an obstacle for defending XTERRA Canada champion, Josiah Middaugh, who racked up the fastest bike split and won the race today and his second consecutive XTERRA Canada title in 2:38:46 – almost two minutes ahead of second placed Mike Vine. “It was one of those days – magical. It feels awesome,” said Middaugh of his win. “It’s a hard course, and tricky – all new trails and much tougher than last year. I got here Wednesday so I had time to practice, and that definitely helped.”
Canada’s Mike Vine took second. Vine, originally from Victoria, has been living and working in Edmonton for the last year, and made a rare appearance for this race. “I haven’t been training much”, he admitted “and that seems to be working. This course is good for me, so that helps. The swim is what I really let slide, so I knew I would come out pretty far down – about where I expected at 2:40 off the top guys. It took me a while to get going on the bike –but towards the end of the first loop I reeled in the swimmers, including Conrad (Stoltz) and Seth (Wealing) – and that fired me right up.” Coming into T2, he was 1:30 behind Josiah, and held 2nd place on the run to finish in 2:40:34.