This year’s Xterra England Championship delivered perfect conditions last weekend for some off-road racing at the Vachery Estate in Surrey, with South Africa’s Conrad Stoltz claiming his fiftieth Xterra championship win and the USA’s Emma Garrard taking her first.
Richard Stannard (GBR) led out of the water from the 1.5km swim in the Vachery pond, but was quickly overtaken by Stoltz who finished the 15km bike course around 3mins ahead of nearest rival Francois Carloni (FRA).
Other athletes in contention for a podium place were defending champ Ben Allen (AUS), Yeray Luxem (BEL) and Roger Serrano (ESP), though they were all quickly overtaken on the 5.5km run by Kris Coddens (BEL) who delivered the fastest split of the day by more than 2mins. Stoltz crossed the line in 2:07:44, followed by Coddens and Luxem.
In the women’s race, last year’s winner Jacqui Slack led out of the swim but was overtaken by Garrard once on the bike, with Chantall Widney (CAN) and Helena Erbenova (CZE) not far behind. Garrard refused to give up the lead though, and posted the fastest run split to cross the line in 2:24:29, followed by Erbenova and Widney.
There’s now one more race in the Xterra European Tour (Xterra Denmark on 31 August) before the Xterra World Championship is held in Hawaii on October 26