XTERRA Worlds moves location

16th Annual XTERRA World Championship headed to Maui’s northwest Coast

Published: April 5, 2011 at 8:56 am

The sport of XTERRA was born on Maui in 1996, and after 15 years on Maui’s south shore, the XTERRA World Championship is heading north to the Kapalua Resort, which will serve as base camp for one of off-road triathlon’s greatest days on 23 October 2011.



The 22,000 acre backyard which stretches from the mountains to the sea, and encompasses verdant rainforests, and a network of trails.

The Kapalua Resort is located on the northwest coast of Maui and its shoreline is distinguished by five lava peninsula-guarded bays and three white sand beaches considered to be among the best in the world. In fact, the XTERRA swim is planned for D.T. Fleming Beach, named “America’s Best Beach” in 2006.



The new location will create a dramatically different challenge for competitors. In stark contrast to the dry and dusty lava-strewn path up Haleakala, the northwest coast is wet and wild with lush rainforests and former pineapple fields that undulate in-and-out of gulches coming down from the West Maui Mountains.



“This new course will give our competitors a new and exciting taste of Hawaii,” said XTERRA managing director Dave Nicholas. “We’ll be able to provide a fantastic mountain bike experience in Kapalua. First blush of the course shows 18 miles with just over 3,000 feet of elevation changes. As the trails move from field to field they drop hundreds of feet down to the bottom of a heavy forested area, and then back up again.”



Kapalua is roughly an hour from Maui’s major airport in Kahului and only five minutes from the Kapalua-West Maui Regional Airport.



The XTERRA World Championship is the last event in an action-packed racing season that spans 15 countries with more than 100 events. A season-ending blow-out like no other, the World Championship is the culmination of a worldwide series of races held in Saipan, South Africa, Philippines, New Zealand, Italy, France, Brazil, Czech, Germany, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Switzerland, and the United States.

The maxed-out field is limited to 550 competitors, who represent the best off-road, multisport athletes on the planet. It is a "winner take all" race, with one of the richest pro purses in multisport at $100,000, and it will be filmed for a nationally broadcast TV show. Last year, South Africa’s Conrad “the Caveman” Stoltz became the first pro to win a fourth XTERRA World Title, while American Shonny Vanlandingham became the ‘oldest’ female to win the world title at 41-years-of-age.



More at http://www.xterraplanet.com/maui/index.html.