Congratulations again to all athletes who participated in the XTERRA Australia events last, especially the winners of each race!

Click Here to view full results from XTERRA Australia, including the support events!

XTERRA Global Tour - Australia

• 1st Male: Chris Legh - Time 2:19:10
• 1st Female: Susie Wood (NZ) - Time 2:53:58

XTERRA Sprint Tri

• 1st Male: Matthew Payton - Time 0:54:27
• 1st Female: Sam Beenie - Time 1:05:15

XTERRA MTB

• 1st Male: Sam Parker (NSW) - Time 1:56:01
• 1st Female: Adele Petran - Time: 2:33:28

XTERRA 5.5km Trail Run

• 1st Male: Carl Luckhoff - Time 0:29:14
• 1st Female: Alyssa Coe - Time 0:31:41

XTERRA 11km Trail Run

• 1st Male: David Spence - Time 0:46:35
• 1st Female: Fiona King - Time 0:57:38

first off the bike Race Report

by Phil Wrochna (Commentator)

Daylesford Victoria, better known for its’ mineral spas and weekend retreats, made a great backdrop for the Australian leg of the XTERRA Global Tour. With some very fast triathletes looking to try their hand at XTERRA and also have a crack at the National Title on offer, the day proved to be an absolute winner and hopefully a staple on the calendar. But the pre-race drama happened early for race favorite Chris Legh. Upon arrival to the venue he snapped his frame leaving him without a bike. The ever-calm Legh managed to find one from one of the sponsors and was seen walking into the transition area with it in parts prior to racing!

The pre-race talk centered around Chris Legh and Leon Griffin. These two athletes are at different points in their careers, they proved to be the ones to watch on this day.  No stranger to XTERRA racing, Legh has also shown his diversity by placing 4th at the XTERRA World Championships in Maui in 2007. The pure XTERRA racers had Jason Chalker and Mark Leishman as their flag flyers who no doubt would want to crash the ‘part-timers’ party. The women’s event had a smaller field and this was headlined by former professional cyclist turned XTERRA racer Susie Wood. 17 year old prodigy Meg Russell was the hope for a local victory.

The day dawned wet and cool. Water temperatures were rumoured to have dropped throughout the week sending a collective chill through the main field. As the showers came and went throughout the morning there was plenty of action with the support races humming through the bush. Trail running and mountain biking were run in the morning with feedback coming back from the mountain bikers that the course was becoming a little slick. The XTERRA racers must have been rubbing their hands together at this prospect as for sure their superior trail riding skills would come to the fore.

At exactly 12.30pm the gun went off to release the professional field onto their adventure. The wind had dropped to nothing meaning a fast swim was assured. Leading the pro field out of the water were Jamie Rhodes, Sam Hume and Ben Allen. The water temps meant that T1 was a little slower with some numb fingers. Griffin came out in 6th place with Legh staring at an early race deficit of nearly a minute with Chalker behind him not having the greatest of days. Wunderkid Meg Russell lead out the female field and with typical speed went through transition like a hurricane.

The trail ride that was supposed to sort out the part timers proved to be a non event. Chris Legh had decided that this was an ideal opportunity to test his legs for Wildflower and took to the bike course. In doing so he also took to the rest of the male professionals and by the time the bike leg ended he was a clear minute up on his rivals. Griffin was doing likewise but found it hard to stick with the flying Legh. “He came flying past me about 10 kilometres into the bike and I tried to hold his wheel for as long as I could but he was gone and once he was gone we were all racing for second.” Said Griffin post race. While Legh was doing the damage on his borrowed bike Susie Wood was showing the field a clean set of wheels. Wood is an outstanding rider and handled the conditions magnificently. She was making a huge dent into the chasers. Richards, Russell and Tester were all feeling the pinch as the race was slipping away from them.

The run leg was a formality as Legh went about making sure he stayed out in front. The lead bike was having to haul it around the course so that it was not caught by a flying Legh. Legh ran in with the fastest run time and took the national title in his first serious race of the season. Susie Wood was not having it all her own way on run. She was strong on the bike was fading. Russell was running her down with each loop of the run. But the damage was done and Russell ran out of trail in pursuit of Wood. Amanda Richards came in third while Jarad Kohler had a great back end of the race to finish in third place.

Legh said after not having the best race in Geelong (70.3) meant he needed to have a hit out before going back over to the States. "I checked out the course last Sunday and realised it would be perfect for me. I knew the strongest athlete out there was going to win as the course was not that technical." Legh proved that with some impressive speed on the day.

The XTERRA World Tour heads off to New Zealand next weekend.... If you get the chance to compete or watch a race it is well worth it.

www.firstoffthebike.com

FUSE Photography took photos of participants in all the XTERRA Australia events and these can be viewed and purchased from www.fusephotography.com

Click Here to view a sample of these photo's on the SuperSprint Gallery

"Firstly it was great to see XTERRA back in Australia. After racing XTERRA in Maui and Tahoe and watching the series growing so rapidly throughout the world I could never understand why Australians wouldn't warm to the concept. The event on the weekend was the perfect reintroduction of XTERRA back to Australia.

The fact that it wasn't too technical in nature, it just didn't seem too intimidating for the masses. But in saying this it was the perfect combination of single track, fast fire trail and an overall opportunity to just get muddy, slide around a little and satisfy that adventurous side that is in all of us. Far from easy, it was a course that still demanded strength and skill but most enjoyable for me was the fact that it gave me a chance to race over a course other than that on Beach Road. I couldn't believe the amount of trails Daylesford had to offer, it's definitely a town to consider for an adventurous getaway.

I'm one of the fortunate guys who gets to travel the world and it was great to see the SuperSprint team and the town of Daylesford put on a world class event. You can definitely count me in again next year, I just hope some of you road junkies will join me!

On a personal level, this was the ideal way to kick off my race season. For most Australian athletes the race gear is packed away now, but for me it's all about to begin. In two weeks time I am taking off to the US for an attempt at the prestigious Wildflower halfIM in early May and then it will be a combination of Ironman 70.3 and XTERRA events for 8 months. My main goals of the year will be the XTERRA World Championships and the 70.3 World Championships in October and November respectively, hopefully I will see a few of you guys there!

Enjoy the off season, get on the mountain bike and change it up a little and I will catch you in Daylesford in 51 weeks"

Cheers,
Chris

CONGRATULATIONS to the XTERRA Australia participants who have qualified for the XTERRA World Championships in Maui, Hawaii on October 28, 2008, earning themselves 1 of 34 places in the Australia team!

TEAM Unlimited will be in contact with the qualifiers for details on how to register for the event; with Tri-Travel coordinating travel for the Australian team. Tri-Travel can be contacted on 1800 225 022.

+ Click Here for list of Australian XTERRA Qualifiers

Congratulations to Sandy Mills (XTERRA Global Tour Age Group Competitor) on winning a return airfare ticket to Hawaii, flying Hawaiian Airlines to the XTERRA World Championships in October 2008!

Goodluck Sandy!!

For more information on Hawaii Airlines, visit www.HawaiianAirlines.com.au or phone 1300 669 106

Thank you to all participants that completed the post event survey. The lucky winner of an Engine backpack is Adam King.

SuperSprint are looking at staging the event on the 22 March 2009 at Daylesford.

The 2008 XTERRA Global Tour will also visit the following countries, with New Zealand this weekend:

• Saipan 8/3/2008
• New Zealand 12/4/2008
• South Africa 19/4/2008
• Italy 1/6/2008
• Brazil 14/6/2008
• Wales 21/6/2008
• Czech Republic 28/6/2008
• France 6/7/2008
• Denmark 16/8/2008
• Japan 30/8/2008
• XTERRA World Championships 28/10/2008

Click here for the full Global Tour Schedule

For details on the New Zealand events visit www.xterranz.com