Santiago, Chile – Felipe “Pipo” Barraza and Barbara “Chicka” Riveros captured the inaugural XTERRA Chile off-road triathlon elite titles and the hearts of their hometown fans in Santiago today.

It’s the first XTERRA win for Barraza and just the second for Riveros (she won XTERRA New Zealand) after a handful of big runner-up finishes at XTERRA USA and World Championship races over the years.

XTERRA World Tour managing director Dave Nicholas was on-site to take in all the action and brings us this report…

I know it sounds corny, but it was chilly in Chile this morning. The skies were cloudy all day with bright sun behind and the temperatures were perfect for racing with a high of 21C (70). Everyone was allowed wetsuits despite the water being at 21C as the air temp at the start was barely 15.5C 60F.

The swim is in a waterski park, so the depth is very consistent but there is no beach or grassy access. The pros had their water start promptly at 9:58 and the age groupers thrashed their way out at 10:00. The swim was two laps and Chilean ITU racer Diego Moya beat the field by a minute. Moya held the bike lead for the first 5K as both bike and run were dead flat for the first 3K. As they hit the first hill a bunch including Canadian Jean-Philippe Thibodeau, local Chile racer Felipe “Pipo” Barraza and Gaspar Riveros. Last week’s Argentine winner Gonzolo Tellechea was a bit back with Americans Ian King and Branden Rakita close behind. Barbara Riveros, the Chilean Olympian (she finished 5th in Rio) and top finisher at Maui several times had a huge lead out of the water.

“Barb is simply on another level right now,” said the reigning Pan Am Champ and runner-up today Suzie Snyder.

Brazilian Laura Mira was 3rd up the hill followed by French pro Morgane Riou and a great battle between Sabrina Gobo and Kara LaPoint.

The race was at the front. Barraza and the mountain bikers quickly swallowed roadie Moya and it became a two-man battle between Argentinian Tellechea and Chilean Barraza. Tellechea eventually got past Barraza but seemed to have some bike trouble near the end and they came into T2 together. Barraza got our first and I don’t think they were ever more than 50-meters apart.

“Felipe was so strong on the hills he would go away from me,” smiled Tellachea. “But then I would come back on the flats by pushing hard. With a few hundred meters to go I knew I could not get him.”

There was an equally great race for 3rd between Brazilian Felipe Moletta and Thibodeau.

“I am thinking this might be my last year if I cannot get faster,” said the Canadian. “My bike was great today but I gave too much and could not catch him.”

Moletta put in the fastest bike time of the day and eased away to take 3rd by just over one-minute. Last week’s second place finisher Maximiliano Morales had a terrible swim but put in a strong bike and was able to catch American Branden Rakita for 5th.

“I am so happy to win here,” grinned Barraza, who was 4th at the Pan Am Championship race last year.

“Gonzalo really made it hard, especially when he passed me on the bike, but I had a good T2 and was able to come out in front. He pushed me all the way.”

As Suzie Snyder said earlier, Riveros was on a different level and she won by 12-minutes over Snyder who had a good race to beat Morgane Riou by four-minutes.

“I knew I had a nice lead but still I had to push. You cannot go easy on those steep hills and I think if you try to go slow it is more dangerous,” said the petite winner. “Last year I got hurt and could not race Maui, but I will be there this year.”

The 2nd XTERRA Pan American Tour race has had a brilliant start. Argentinian Gonzalo Tellechea won Argentina and Chilean Felipe Barraza wins Chile. Susie Snyder had two great races but ran into a tiny buzz-saw here and had to settle for second. Both races were well-organized and the courses, while tough, were fair and fun. The Brazilians were here in force and even hired a bus and trailer to take all their gear from Santiago to the race venue. It was quite amazing to see a pizza chef making fresh dough and topping it with fresh ingredients 100’ from the finish line! And in a portable pizza oven. Erdinger tasty nonalcoholic beer had plenty of free drinks for everyone including a huge stein for the winners.

Tentative Elite Results

XTERRA Pan America Tour Standings After 2

PL NAME, NAT TOT ARG CHI 1 Gonzalo Tellechea, ARG 142 75 67 2 Maximiliano Morales, ARG 118 67 51 3 Jean-Philippe Thibodeau, CAN 117 61 56 4 Branden Rakita, USA 103 56 47 5 León Drajer, ESP 94 51 43 6 Julien Buffe, FRA 82 43 39 7 Felipe Barraza, CHI 75 DNS 75 8 Felipe Barraza, CHI 75 DNS 75 9 Felipe Moletta, BRA 61 DNS 61 10 Felipe Moletta, BRA 61 DNS 61 11 Andres Darricau, ARG 47 47 DNS 12 Diego Moya, CHI 36 DNS 36 13 Gaspar Riveros, CHI 33 DNS 33 14 Benjamin Munizaga, CHI 30 DNS 30 15 Ian King, USA 27 DNS 27

Learn more about the XTERRA Pan America Tour here.

2017 XTERRA World Championship Qualifying Series Schedule

XTERRA Chile was the sixth of 41 events where amateur athletes from around the world could qualify to race at the 22nd annual XTERRA World Championship at Kapalua, Maui on October 29.

Date Race Elite Winners or Location Feb 25 XTERRA South Africa Richard Murray / Flora Duffy Mar 4 XTERRA Motatapu Dougal Allan / Josie Wilcox Mar 18 XTERRA Saipan + Silver Sam Osborne / Carina Wasle Mar 25 XTERRA Argentina # Silver Gonzalo Tellechea / Suzie Snyder Apr 1 XTERRA Thailand + Silver Kieran McPherson / Renata Bucher Apr 1 XTERRA Chile # Silver Felipe Barraza / Barbara Riveros Apr 2 XTERRA Malta * Silver Majjistral Nature Reserve Apr 8 XTERRA New Zealand + Silver Rotorua, North Island Apr 9 XTERRA Costa Rica # Silver Playa Reserva Conchal Apr 16 XTERRA La Reunion La Reunion Island Apr 23 XTERRA Cyprus * Silver Lara Beach/Akamas, Paphos Apr 23 XTERRA Cebu + GOLD Danao, Cebu, Philippines Apr 29 XTERRA Asia-Pacific Championship / Malaysia + GOLD Langkawi, Malaysia Apr 30 XTERRA Greece * Silver Vouliagmeni May 6 XTERRA Tahiti + Silver Moorea May 14 XTERRA Spain * Silver Taragonna May 14 XTERRA Brazil # Silver Ilha Bella, Sao Paolo May 20 XTERRA Oak Mountain # GOLD Pelham, AL, USA May 27 XTERRA Portugal * Silver Golega Jun 10 XTERRA Belgium * Silver Namur Jun 17 XTERRA Mine over Matter ^ Milton, Ontario, Canada Jun 18 XTERRA Finland * Silver Imatra Jun 24 XTERRA Switzerland * GOLD Vallee de Joux Jul 2 XTERRA France * GOLD Xonrupt Jul 9 XTERRA Victoria # Silver Victoria, B.C., Canada Jul 15 XTERRA Beaver Creek # GOLD Beaver Creek, CO, USA Jul 30 XTERRA Abruzzo * Silver Scanno, Abruzzo, Italy Aug 5 XTERRA Mexico # GOLD Tapalpa Aug 5 XTERRA Norway * Silver Norefjell Aug 6 XTERRA Canmore ^ Canmore, Alberta, Canada Aug 12 XTERRA Quebec ^ Quebec City, Canada Aug 12 XTERRA Parry Sound ^ Ontario, Canada Aug 13 XTERRA Dominican Republic # Silver Barahona Aug 13 XTERRA Poland * Silver Krakow Aug 19 XTERRA Germany * GOLD Zittau Aug 26 XTERRA Sweden * Silver Hammarbybacken, Stockholm Aug 26 XTERRA Sleeping Giant ^ Thunder Bay, ON, Canada Sep 2 XTERRA Japan + Silver Hokkaido Sep 3 XTERRA European Championship / Denmark * GOLD Mons Klint Sep 16 XTERRA Pan American Championship / USA # D-GOLD Ogden, Utah, USA Oct 29 XTERRA World Championship Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii

* XTERRA European Tour / # XTERRA Pan American Tour / + Asia-Pacific Tour

Silver = Min. $7,500 pro purse & 75-point scale // GOLD = Min $15,000 pro purse & 100-point scale.

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