Osborne, Poor win XTERRA Germany

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Sam Osborne from New Zealand and Brigitta Poor from Hungary captured the 16th annual XTERRA Germany Championship elite titles in Zittau this afternoon.

It’s the second win in as many weeks for Osborne and Poor, who took the wins at XTERRA Poland last week, and it is also the fifth major title of the season for both.

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

There’s a habit forming here in Europe as Osborne and Poor won for the second straight week, this time in the Saxony mountains.  The forecast all week was doom and gloom.  They called for rain on Friday at 17:00 (5pm), and rain all day on Saturday.  It never came on Friday until about 23:00 (11pm) and it came hard.  At the venue a bunch of expo tents were ripped from the ground and tossed meters away.  But as quickly as the storm came – it went.  Race day morning was cool and cloudy but no rain.

The swim start here is a show.  The athletes are announced and walk to a blue line of plastic tiles laid in the sand.  Everyone toes the line until the gun goes off and it is a fabulous sight as 60+ pros head to the sea to splash and dive towards the first buoy.

The winners won it in a very similar fashion to last week.

“I knew if I was with the fast guys at the top of the mountain I could rest a bit on the way down,” grinned the Kiwi, Osborne. “We all worked together and everyone pulled so we came into T2 and it became a running race.”

Brigitta after the race was, well, typical Brigitta.

“Oh, my swim was not so good and then I got on the bike and could hardly go,” she said as she looked to the sky.  “On the run, I was flat but after a few K it felt better.”

This was said by a woman who won by nearly six-minutes, turned in the 2nd fastest swim, the fastest bike and the 3rd fastest run.  In second was series leader Helena Erbenova-Karaskova, who was a bit more jubilant about her performance.

“My swim was good, I liked it, but I just could not make time on the bike or the run.   I felt good but the high performance was not there,” she said.

Carina Wasle had a very tidy 3rd place.  She did not like her swim and felt her power was down on the bike.  “I really liked the run and I felt fast.  Last week my run was not so good, today it was great.  I have to put all 3 together soon,” she smiled with that cute little turn of her head.  “I am really happy with 3rd today.”

Elite Women Pos Name/Nat Time Points 1 Brigitta Poor, HUN 03:00:56 100 2 Helena Karaskova-Erbenova, CZE 03:06:51 90 3 Carina Wasle, AUT  03:08:11 82 4 Elizabeth Orchard, NZL 03:11:18 75 5 Diane Lee, UK 03:24:36 69 6 Daria Rogozina, RUS 03:24:43 63 7 Louise Fox, GBR 03:25:00 58 8 Isabelle Ferrer, FRA 03:25:39 53 9 Leicester Johandri, RSA 03:27:56 49

In the men’s race it was a great fight the entire day, until Osborne decided to literally run away with the race.  At the 12K mark on what is known as the Hochwald Aussichtsturm – the high woods observation tower- the fight was on.  Osborne led with Jens Roth and Roger Serrano right on his heels.  Just a handful of seconds later came Arthur Serrieres, Bradley Weiss and OMG, is that Pavel Andreev.  We knew the Russian was fast, he won in Finland and had a nice 5th in Poland but none of us expected him to be challenging the lead group this quick.  The Russian had improved his swim enough to catch and hang with the leaders.

No one had seen Xavier Dafflon until this morning at transition.  Dafflon is the big surprise of this year winning in Italy and showing considerable strength in Belgium and France.  This man can power a bike like nobody currently on the tour.  Yes, in the races they went head-to-head, Dafflon had faster bike times than “The Boss” Ruben Ruzafa.  Dafflon lost over 7-minutes coming out of the water to Osborne, Serrano and Roth but by the top of the Hochwald he was back just under 4-minutes.

“I was very happy with my swim and the bike was going fast.  After the climb, I was flying coming down the hills and got a flat tire,” he said.  “In mountain biking we say a flat tire is your fault and I know exactly what I did wrong.”

At the final, rocky downhill Dafflon was missing and we knew something had gone wrong.  Also, MIA was the Spaniard Serrano who had picked up a stick somewhere that got caught inside and broke his rear derailleur.

It was simply wonderful watching these top five guys swarm down a rocky, gnarly descent that hundreds of age groupers simply walk down.  The surprise at that point was young Arthur Serrieres in the lead and Pavel in 2nd.  Then came Sam in 3rd, Bradley in 4th, and Jens Roth in 5th.  Not far back was the other young Frenchmen Maxim Chane and Francois Carloni.

“We were all in a pack coming into T2 and I just took off as fast as I could,” said Osborne.  “The ITU boys would have been proud of my first 2K’s.  Out of sight, out of mind.”

As fast as Serrieres can run, he was still almost a minute slower than Sam and that’s how they finished.  Pavel came onto the run in 3rd but Weiss hunted him down and finished less than a minute back of Arthur for 3rd, Pavel had a fabulous 4th and Roth rounded out the top five and was also the first in the German cross triathlon championship category.  Rui Delores (POR) ran himself up into 6th and will have a great shot to finish 5th in the European series.

Elite Men Pos Name/Nat Time Points 1 Sam Osborne, NZL 02:36:57 100 2 Arthur Serrieres , FRA 02:37:52 90 3 Bradley Weiss, RSA 02:38:44 82 4 Pavel Andreev, RUS 02:39:53 75 5 Jens Roth, GER 02:42:56 69 6 Rui Dolores, POR 02:43:12 63 7 Maxim Chane, FRA 02:43:44 58 8 Jan Kubicek, CZE 02:44:55 53 9 Peter Lehmann, GER 02:45:10 49 10 Francois Carloni, FRA 02:45:40 45

It is such a pleasure to make our annual visit to Zittau and Olbersdorf.  The race is a classic with one big loop on both the bike and run.  It is difficult and challenging, but achievable.  The city and villages are picture-perfect postcard places with great restaurants, dozens of hotels and guest homes and super friendly people.  Speaking a bit of German won’t hurt, but smiles and hand gestures can get almost anything done.  Benno Schwager and his team have a huge, impressive setup with live TV from around the course shown under the BIG canopy, bands Friday and Saturday nights and everything in the race venue from pizza to ice cream and never forget those fabulous German brats.  To wash it all away are three beer stands with dark, light and non-alcoholic options for you to choose from.  From opening ceremony to awards, this is simply a superlative event.

And it didn’t rain.  Not a drop.

RUZAFA, ERBENOVA REMAIN ATOP EURO TOUR STANDINGS

While Ruben is untouchable in first place, it is still up in the air behind him.  Francois Carloni added a bit to his 2nd overall total and now leads 3rd place Dafflon by 33-points. Osborne made a big move to 4th just 10-points out of the top three.  Rui’s finish keeps him in 5th, 35-points ahead of Chane.

For the women, Poor gained 10-points with the win but still needs 33 more points than her rival Erbenova at the finale in Denmark to take the series title.  Wasle is solid in 3rd and Maud Golsteyn has a good lead in 4th.  Morgane Riou, Nicole Waters and Louise Fox are all in the mix for 5th and Lizzie Orchard could spoil those women’s hopes with a big finish next week.

Next Up: XTERRA European Championship, September 2, Mons Klint, Denmark

XTERRA Germany was the 13th of 14 races on the XTERRA European Tour where amateur athletes from around the world could qualify to race at the 22nd annual XTERRA World Championship in Maui on October 29.

Date Race Elite Winners or Location 25-Feb XTERRA South Africa Richard Murray / Flora Duffy 4-Mar XTERRA Motatapu Dougal Allan / Josie Wilcox 18-Mar XTERRA Saipan + Silver Sam Osborne / Carina Wasle 25-Mar XTERRA Argentina # Silver Gonzalo Tellechea / Suzie Snyder 1-Apr XTERRA Thailand + Silver Kieran McPherson / Renata Bucher 1-Apr XTERRA Chile # Silver Felipe Barraza / Barbara Riveros 2-Apr XTERRA Malta * Silver Roger Serrano / Brigitta Poor 8-Apr XTERRA New Zealand + Silver Sam Osborne / Jacqui Allen 9-Apr XTERRA Costa Rica # Silver Josiah Middaugh / Suzie Snyder 16-Apr XTERRA La Reunion Ruben Ruzafa / Carina Wasle 23-Apr XTERRA Danao + GOLD Bradley Weiss / Carina Wasle 23-Apr XTERRA Cyprus * Silver Yeray Luxem / Brigitta Poor 29-Apr XTERRA Langkawi + GOLD Osborne,Allen,Weiss,McPherson/Wasle 30-Apr XTERRA Greece * Silver Ruben Ruzafa, Helena Erbenova 6-May XTERRA Tahiti + Silver Sam Osborne / Jacqui Allen 13-May XTERRA Brazil # Silver Felipe Moletta / Sabrina Gobbo 14-May XTERRA Spain * Silver Ruben Ruzafa / Helena Erbenova 20-May XTERRA Oak Mountain # GOLD Josiah Middaugh / Suzie Snyder 27-May XTERRA Portugal * Silver Ruben Ruzafa / Brigitta Poor 10-Jun XTERRA Belgium * Silver Ruben Ruzafa / Helena Erbenova 17-Jun XTERRA Mine over Matter ^ Karsten Madsen / Heather Pady 18-Jun XTERRA Finland * Silver Pavel Andreev / Louise Fox 24-Jun XTERRA Switzerland * GOLD Arthur Forissier / Michelle Flipo 2-Jul XTERRA France * GOLD Ruben Ruzafa / Laura Philipp 9-Jul XTERRA Victoria # Silver Karsten Madsen / Suzie Snyder 15-Jul XTERRA Beaver Creek # GOLD Josiah Middaugh / Lesley Paterson 30-Jul XTERRA Abruzzo * Silver Xavier Dafflon / Helena Karaskova 5-Aug XTERRA Mexico # GOLD Josiah Middaugh / Suzie Snyder 5-Aug XTERRA Norway * Silver Ruben Ruzafa / Maud Golssteyn 13-Aug XTERRA Dominican Republic Josiah Middaugh / Morgane Riou 13-Aug XTERRA Poland * Silver Sam Osborne / Brigitta Poor 19-Aug XTERRA Germany Sam Osborne / Brigitta Poor 2-Sep XTERRA European Championship Mons Klint 16-Sep XTERRA Pan Am Championship Ogden, Utah, USA 29-Oct XTERRA World Championship Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii

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