Middaugh, Duffy Win XTERRA Mountain Championship

Josiah Middaugh (USA) and Flora Duffy (BER) captured the seventh annual XTERRA Mountain Championship off-road triathlon pro race titles on a picture-perfect day at Beaver Creek Resort in the Rocky Mountains around Avon, Colo. this morning.

Read the recap from XTERRA below:

It’s Middaugh’s third-straight win on his home course and fourth in five years.  It’s also his second win in a row on the XTERRA U.S. Pro Series and puts him in prime position to capture his third straight Series title in Utah this September.  Of note, Middaugh won his first-ever XTERRA major at the Mountain Championship when it was held in Keystone, Colo. in 2004.  This is his 16th career XTERRA title.

The 36-year-old from Eagle-Vail, Colo. is living proof that you can’t win the race in the swim. He exited the 68-degree waters of Nottingham Lake about 2:30 back of rookie Eli Hemming and the established XTERRA core of racers Branden Rakita, Brad Zoller, Braden Currie and Ben Hoffman.

At mile 3.5 Currie had nine seconds on Hoffman, more than a minute on Rakita and Rom Akerson, and Middaugh was 1:35 back.  By T2 after several thousand feet of climbing up the mountain Middaugh had a 40-second lead on Currie and one-minute on Hoffman.  Two miles into the run that lead had stretched to two minutes and he crossed the line in 2:07:26, followed by Hoffman in 2:09:10 and Currie in 2:10:50.

It’s Hoffman’s second straight runner-up here, and he was third in each of the previous two tries. With his third-place showing today Currie moves into second place in the XTERRA U.S. Pro Series standings and could take the Series with a win at the USA Championship combined with a third-place or lower finish by Middaugh in Utah.

XTERRA Costa Rica Champion Rom Akerson finished in fourth and Alex Modestou placed fifth for the second straight season.

Women’s Race
In the women’s race, the reigning XTERRA World Champion Flora Duffy’s reign of dominance continued.

A week after finishing third at the PanAm Games road triathlon in Toronto, Duffy proved she’s just as strong on a mountain bike and trails.  The 27-year-old from Devonshire, Bermuda had the fastest swim, bike and run to take the tape in 2:22:41, more than six minutes ahead of runner-up Emma Garrard.

The victory marks her 11th XTERRA win in her last 12 tries since the start of the 2014 season.

Behind Duffy, Emma Garrard was having a great day of her own. She posted the third-best swim, got ahead of Sara McLarty early on the bike and had the second-fastest ride and run times to finish in 2:28:43, nearly six-minutes ahead of Schuler.

It’s Garrard’s fifth straight runner-up finish this year and she’s now placed secod at all eight regional championship races over the past two seasons.  Sara Schuler ran her way into third, Jaime Brede had a career-best day to finish fourth, and last month’s XTERRA East Champion Suzie Snyder finished fifth.

XTERRA Mountain Championship
Avon, Colo. – July 18, 2015
1-mile swim, 25km mountain bike, 9.3 km trail run

Men
1. Josiah Middaugh (USA) 2:07:26
2. Ben Hoffman (USA) 2:09:10
3. Braden Currie (NZL)  2:10:50
4. Rom Akerson (CRC)  2:15:19
5. Alex Modestou (USA) 2:15:32

Women
1. Flora Duffy (BER) 2:22:41
2. Emma Garrard (USA) 2:28:43
3. Sara Schuler (USA) 2:34:36
4. Jaime Brede (USA) 2:36:56
5. Suzie Snyder (USA) 2:38:01

Complete results.