ITU Cross Triathlon World Champs One Month Out

Published April 19, 2012 12:22PM

The 2012 ITU Cross Triathlon World Championships, which will double as the Xterra Southeast Championship, will take place on May 19.

The countdown is on to the biggest event on the ITU Cross Triathlon calendar, the 2012 Shelby County ITU Cross Triathlon World Championships. Just one month until Oak Mountain State Park in Pelham, Alabama hosts the event on May 19 which also marks a landmark partnership with the Xterra Southeast Championship.

Oak Mountain State Park, located in the southernmost part of the Appalachian Chain, boasts a trail praised by competitors as one of the most fun, fast, scenic and difficult with credit attributed to the work of Birmingham Urban Mountain Pedalers (BUMP) along with Alabama’s DCNR State Park Division , Shelby County and the City of Pelham. BUMP has spent more than 100,000 hours in design and construction of new trails over the past 20 years.

Pelham is the second ITU Cross Triathlon World Championships following last year’s successful inauguration in Extremadura, Spain and will this year be held in conjunction with the seventh-annual Xterra Southeast Championship. Winners in Extremadura, Canadian Melanie McQuaid and South Africa’s Conrad Stoltz, are preparing to defend their world title in 2012.

Two-time Olympian Stoltz holds the unrivalled record of 43 career XTERRA championship victories and stated Oak Mountain as his favourite ever course following his fifth straight XTERRA Southeast Championship win last year.

“Oak Mountain State Park is amazing, and I know I speak for all of us when I say we love racing there,” said Stoltz. “It’s a true XTERRA course with a nice warm water swim in a beautiful lake, a real mountain biker’s course with climbing, technical sections, and fun corners, and a tough but scenic run. This course is fully worthy of hosting a big international field of off-road triathletes.”

The 2012 course will feature a different bike route to the 2011 XTERRA Southeast Championship which promises to be more spectator friendly with multiple loops around the scenic Double Oak Lake.

“This course is really fun, and it’s always one of our favourite stops on tour because everyone is so nice, inviting, and thoughtful,” said McQuaid. “It’s very fun to get to enjoy life southern style for a while like this.”

With over 40 miles of trails from single track to jeep roads, rolling hills and technical yet fast descents, the trail system is listed among the top five in the USA. The race promises favourable weather conditions with temperatures normally between 29-31°C and expected lake temperature of 24°C. Athletes can also look forward to the warm hospitality famous in this area of the United States.

“Alabama is always a very interesting cultural experience for me,” said Stoltz. “We get to meet a lot of the locals, talk to the people, enjoy the southern hospitality and the southern food which is really pretty cool.”

The event will feature $20,000 USD in prize money for elite athletes, who will compete over a 1.5km swim, 30km mountain bike and 10km trail run. The elite women’s race will begin at 2 p.m. on Saturday May 19 with the elite men at 16:00. Under-23, junior, age-group and paratriathlon races will also be contested in Pelham.