After a good performance at Sea Otter, I went into my 1st XTERRA of the season knowing that the form is there. The 09 XTERRA season is heavily loaded with 7 races between may 2 and mid July. Lots and lots of traveling...

The course in Las Vegas was like a moon landscape- loose, dusty rubble with super steep hills and some dry riverbed. Not much single track unfortunately.

Despite the heat the water was cool and we had a wet suit legal swim. Usually I try to hang with the leaders, but I kept up surprisingly comfortably, and after weighing my options I decided to go to the front and push the pace. Even though we were in the lead in the (mens') swim, (a girl lead the swim!) there were great cyclist/runners who needed to be kept at a distance in the swim. Steve Larsen, Brian Smith, Josiah Middaugh and Nico Lebrun.

After a quick transition I had a small lead over Dan Hugo and 3 other guys from our swim group. (I'm quick through transition thanks to my customized Specialized Transition shoes and years on the ITU circuit.)

I felt pretty strong, rode well, would have liked to have known the course better (only had 1 look at it) but I was gapping the riders behind. On top of a climb I dropped the chain and somehow managed to bend it 90deg. It took me a second to figure out what was wrong- I have never seen a chain bend like that- I thought my race was over. Fortunately the bend was in 1 link only and with hope I bent the chain as straight as I could. I thought, "this chain will never hold" and I promised myself to stay in the big blade the whole way. Impossible, of course...

After that I was quite rattled and then saw Josiah coming up from behind. Either he swam amazingly or his riding like a demon. Turned out it was both! I became annoyed because I coudlnt focus and kept braking too much through a long twisty section. The last turn I told myself, "screw it I'm not braking here" Of course my front wheel washed out and I went down in front of the TV camera (www.xterra.tv) and my girlfriend!

Halfway through the 30km bike Josiah caught up and a little later hit me hard on one of the steep climbs. I had to let him go, and as one of the most feared runners, I thought the race was his. I tried to limit my losses, clawing time back on the technical stuff and losing time on the climbs. By the end of the bike I was 1.15 down.

Once my Avia Stoltz's were laced up, I took off into the moon landscape and tackled the very hilly run course determined to stay solid- with the strong winds, steep climbs and bad surface, one could lose a lot of time. I could see Josiah slowly crawling up a near vertical climb. For a while I savored the satisfaction of the comfy ride of the trail racing shoes I personally designed, and next thing noticed the gap was shrinking. I poured on the "powder" a bit more, making sure to stay under the red line, calculating every footstep: continually weighing the shortest route vs good footing.

On the downhills, I let go of the brakes, letting gravity pull my 80kg forward seemingly out of control. I caught up next to Josiah just before the start of the 2nd lap. Considering I just made up 1.15 in 5km I thought pulling away would be pretty easy. But Josiah is tough as nails and obviously savours tooth and nail racing. He picked up the pace, politely elbowed me into the bad lines and sprinted to take the shortest route and aid stations. Real racing!

I picked our battlefield on my terms- 2km from the finish- all either down or flat. I hit him as hard as I could and readied myself for a agonizing 2km drag race. I dared not look behind- a sure sign of fear. After what felt like ages, I couldnt take the suspense anymore and stole a quick peek: He was a small speck far in the distance- compared to what I expected. Phew! I could zip up the jersey, wipe off my face (in case of snot and/or mud) and go down the finish at a civilized pace.

The 1st race of the season is usually a good indicator of the rest of the seasons' racing, so I was happy with a solid race. Behind us the gaps were huge- Dan Hugo, in 3rd, was 5min back, and had 3 minutes on Mike Vine in 4th.

Bike set-up:

Specialized S-Works Epic.

Fork 65psi

Shock 190psi

Tires: Fast Track Prototype #5.

28 psi rear

26psi front

Shoes: Custom Trivent with MTB sole.