Stoltz, Garrard win XTERRA England Championship
Conrad Stoltz and Emma Garrard captured the XTERRA England Championship on a beautiful Sunday afternoon at Vachery Estate in Cranleigh, Surrey.
It was a landmark victory for Stoltz, his 50th career XTERRA championship win. For Garrard, it was her first, made all the more special with a big cheering section full of family.
In the men’s race Stoltz came out of the water near the leaders (Richard Stannard was first out of the water) then blew the competition completely out of the water. He had a big lead at the 5K mark on the bike and then built on that. Funny thing was, he was bleeding everywhere, but not from crashing. The course is so tight and twisty in the forest his arms and legs just kept brushing the bush, not that he noticed. His bike split was more than three minutes faster than the next best time of Francois Carloni.
Behind him a great mix of XTERRA’s elite were battling for second with last year’s champ Ben Allen, Yeray Luxem, Francois Carloni and Roger Serrano trading places. Heading into the bike-to-run transition (well behind Stoltz) it was Luxem, Serrano, Allen, and Carloni … but then Kris Coddens got to the run and chased them all down with the fastest split of the day by more than two minutes.
All the while the women were having their own all-out battles. Last year’s winner Jacqui Slack led out of the water and early on the bike and was looking strong. A few hundred twists in the forest later and Garrard was in the lead with Chantell Widney not far behind. Then came along Helena Erbenova on a mission to win her fourth XTERRA European Tour Championship of the year. Those three – Garrard, Widney, and Erbenova – put on quite a show and it couldn’t have come at a better venue as the XTERRA England course cuts through the “arena” dozens of times so spectators and announcers can really get into the action.
Ultimately it came down to the run and a “refuse-to-lose” attitude from Garrard. She posted the fastest run split by almost two minutes to capture her first major victory after four runner-up finishes in the XTERRA U.S. Pro Series (including one to Widney last month in Colorado).
XTERRA England was the 10th of 11 races in the European Tour, which concludes next Sunday at the XTERRA Denmark Championship in Tisvilde.
More stories and photos from an epic day in England to come…
| Elite Men | ||
| Pl | Name | Time |
| 1 | Conrad Stoltz, RSA | 2:07:44 |
| 2 | Kris Coddens, BEL | 2:11:41 |
| 3 | Yeray Luxem, BEL | 2:12:04 |
| 4 | Ben Allen, AUS | 2:12:54 |
| 5 | Roger Serrano, ESP | 2:14:11 |
| 6 | Francois Carloni, FRA | 2:17:09 |
| 7 | Matt Dewis, GBR | 2:17:31 |
| 8 | Jan Pyott, SUI | 2:18:30 |
| 9 | Richard Stannard, GBR | 2:19:22 |
| 10 | Liam Lloyd, GBR | 2:19:37 |
| Also: Beau Smith, Branden Rakita, Rory Downie, Grayson Keppler, Graham Wadsworth, Doug Hall, Asa Shaw, Rhys Davey | ||
| Elite Women | ||
| Pl | Name | Final |
| 1 | Emma Garrard, USA | 2:24:29 |
| 2 | Helena Erbenova, CZE | 2:26:27 |
| 3 | Chantell Widney, CAN | 2:28:21 |
| 4 | Jacqui Slack, GBR | 2:32:48 |
| 5 | Brigitta Poor, HUN | 2:32:55 |
| 6 | Maud Golsteyn, NED | 2:37:29 |
| 7 | Louise Fox, GBR | 2:43:02 |
| 8 | Jessica Roberts, GBR | 2:44:54 |
| 9 | Bethan Fowler, GBR | 3:05:12 |
| 10 | Natasha Berry, GBR | 3:14:42 |
| Also: Nicole Oliveri | ||
The XTERRA England Championship is sponsored by RentalCars.com, XTERRA Wetsuits, PowerBar and Squirt.
About TEAM Unlimited
TEAM Unlimited is a Hawaii-based television events and marketing company, founded in 1988. It owns and produces XTERRA and in 2014 will offer more than 300 XTERRA off-road triathlon and trail running races in 25+ countries worldwide. In addition, TEAM TV has produced more than 300 adventure television shows resulting in three Emmy’s and 42 Telly Awards for production excellence since 1990. View samples at www.xterra.tv, and learn more at xterraplanet.com and xterratrailrun.com.
2014 XTERRA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFIERS
The XTERRA England Championship is the 31st of 36 events where the fastest amateur athletes from around the globe could qualify to race at the 19th annual XTERRA World Championship at Kapalua, Maui on October 26, 2014.
| Date | Race | Location / Pro Winners |
| 23-Feb | XTERRA South Africa | Dan Hugo / Flora Duffy |
| 8-Mar | XTERRA Motatapu | Braden Currie / Nicky Samuels |
| 15-Mar | XTERRA Philippines Championship | Dan Hugo / Renata Bucher |
| 29-Mar | XTERRA Guam Championship | Dan Hugo / Renata Bucher |
| 29-Mar | XTERRA Costa Rica | Leonardo Chacon / Shonny Vanlandingham |
| 30-Mar | XTERRA Great Ocean Road | Ben Allen / Jacqui Slack |
| 5-Apr | XTERRA Saipan Championship | Ben Allen / Carina Wasle |
| 12-Apr | XTERRA New Zealand Championship | Conrad Stoltz / Barbara Riveros |
| 13-Apr | XTERRA West Championship | Josiah Middaugh / Flora Duffy |
| 26-Apr | XTERRA Asia-Pacific Championship | Dan Hugo / Flora Duffy |
| 3-May | XTERRA Malaysia | Dan Hugo / Jacqui Slack |
| 17-May | XTERRA Southeast Championship | Josiah Middaugh / Flora Duffy |
| 24-May | XTERRA Mauritius | Sam Gardner / Karyn Southgate |
| 24-May | XTERRA Spain Championship | Ruben Ruzafa / Helena Erbenova |
| 1-Jun | XTERRA Portugal | Ruben Ruzafa / Coralie Redelsperger |
| 8-Jun | XTERRA Brazil Championship | Felipe Moletta / Sabrina Gobbo |
| 15-Jun | XTERRA East Championship | Dan Hugo / Flora Duffy |
| 21-Jun | XTERRA Greece | Francois Carloni / Kathrin Mueller |
| 28-Jun | XTERRA Switzerland Championship | Ruben Ruzafa / Kathrin Mueller |
| 29-Jun | XTERRA Norway | Dan Hugo / Cecilie Overbye |
| 5-Jul | XTERRA Ontario | Sean Bechtel / Heather Pady |
| 6-Jul | XTERRA France Championship | Ruben Ruzafa / Kathrin Mueller |
| 6-Jul | XTERRA Victoria | Brent McMahon / Melanie McQuaid |
| 6-Jul | XTERRA Freedom Fest | Sergio Florian / Laurel Dudley |
| 13-Jul | XTERRA Sweden | Braden Currie / Helena Erbenova |
| 19-Jul | XTERRA Mountain Championship | Josiah Middaugh / Chantell Widney |
| 26-Jul | XTERRA Italy Championship | Ruben Ruzafa / Helene Erbenova |
| 2-Aug | XTERRA Mexico Championship | Irving Perez / Fabiola Corona |
| 9-Aug | XTERRA Czech Championship | Ruben Ruzafa / Kathrin Mueller |
| 16-Aug | XTERRA Germany Championship | Ruben Ruzafa / Kathrin Mueller |
| 17-Aug | XTERRA Canmore | Mathieu Signoretty / Brittany Webster |
| 24-Aug | XTERRA England | Conrad Stoltz / Emma Garrard |
| 31-Aug | XTERRA Denmark | Tisvilde |
| 31-Aug | XTERRA Quebec | Lac Delage, Quebec, Canada |
| 7-Sep | XTERRA Sleeping Giant | Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada |
| 20-Sep | XTERRA USA Championship | Ogden/Snowbasin, UT |
| 26-Oct | XTERRA World Championship | Maui, Hawaii |
