Ruzafa, Bucher win XTERRA Spain

Cieza, Murcia, Spain –  Ruben Ruzafa (28 - Malaga, Spain) and Renata Bucher (36 - Lucerne, Switzerland) won the XTERRA European Tour season-opener, the XTERRA Spain Championship in Cieza, Murcia on Sunday, June 2.

For Ruzafa, a successful pro mountain biker who collected four national titles in cross country and marathon for Spain, it marks his full-time venture into triathlon almost five years after winning the 2008 XTERRA World Championship in Maui.

“Since 2008 I knew I wanted to be a triathlete, and this is my first year and first big professional race with that focus.  It’s a great beginning, and special to start here in my country,” said Ruzafa, who lives four hours away from Cieza by car.

This was just Ruzafa’s third XTERRA (he was second at XTERRA Italy in 2009) and although he went to XTERRA Worlds in ’09 he was unable to defend his title after crashing two days before the race.

XTERRA World Tour warrior Ben Allen gave Ruzafa a run for his money, but came up just short.

“What a battle,” said Allen, who has won five XTERRA World Tour races this season and placed second twice now (also 2nd to Courtney Atkinson in Australia).  “Happy to finish 2nd behind the ’08 World Champ.  I knew he was going to be very strong on the bike, but he showed he can also run.  I could see him the whole way on the run and started to gain ground towards the end but he had enough in the tank to take the win today.”

For Bucher, it’s her fourth straight XTERRA World Tour win (33rd career) following her impressive string of victories in April spanning XTERRA Australia, New Zealand, and Malaysia.

“The race was great.  I felt really good from the beginning to the end, and finally I was able to enjoy the hard run as well,” said Bucher.  “I know that Helena can run, like Lesley (Paterson), so I pushed really hard on the bike but rode controlled without having troubles or making a mistake.  It was a great day for me, and I’m very thankful for it.”

XTERRA managing director “Kahuna Dave” Nicholas was on-site and brings us this report…

The day started with local pro Roger “Raja” Serrano and Ben Allen leading the swim and putting a minute into last year’s Euro Tour runner-up Asa Shaw.  Ruzafa, who looked very fit and relaxed, had a solid swim just two minutes back.  Out on the bike, Allen and Serrano quickly dropped young Frenchman Brice Daubord (a certain future star) and Joan Ruvireta Brufau to battle for the lead.

Ruzafa caught the pair near the end of the bike but did not make a move to pass.  Later, both Raja and Allen thought Ruzafa could have passed but was conserving strength for the run.  They were spot on.

Into T2 there was not 10 yards between the three of them and all left in one fast pack.  The run from T2 goes uphill immediately and continues to climb for quite a while.  Ruzafa took off from the start and grabbed a lead he would not relinquish despite a lingering injury to his Psoas muscle he contracted in February.

Serrano, who is a road warrior and not used to this kind of running, had a hard time and eventually faded to 6th place, but this 22-year-old is a contender for the future.

Allen was not giving in at all and kept Ruzafa in sight.  Near the end on the dusty, hot flat sections, the Aussie was catching the Spaniard but it was too little, too late and he came home second just 47 seconds out.

Asa Shaw pulled his way back to third but not without a fight from Hector Guerra who had the second fastest bike split to Ruzafa by one-second.  Guerra raced XTERRA a bit last year and will concentrate on the Tour this season.  While Shaw got away from him, Guerro has to be very pleased with 4th, and contented for third all the way to the line.

Defending XTERRA European Tour champion Nico Lebrun put in the fastest run by far and came home 5th, a typical early season race for “The Professor.”  Nico still has the chops and nobody should think his last season after 11 fantastic years will be taken lightly.

Roger Serrano was 6th, Brice Daubord 7th, Belgium Jim Thijs 8th, Ruvireta Brufau 9th, and Cedric Lassonde 10th after a nasty training accident on Saturday that gave him three stitches and some bad bruising.

Also: Francois Carloni, Tomas Kubek, Llewellyn Holmes, Fracisco Macias, Xavier Torrades, Pavel Jinora, Fabien Combaluzier, Antonio Cardona, Tyronne White, Juan Fernandez, Agusta Roc

In the women’s race Germany’s Katrin Muller blitzed the swim for the women and came out 30-seconds ahead of Brit Jacqui Slack.  Both of them were caught by the amazingly fast Renata Bucher early on.  Bucher had three wins in April and is in fantastic form.  Slack was second at the half way point in the bike with Muller 3rd and then a long gap to Czech Helena Erbenova with young and improving Hungarian Brigitta Poor in 5th.  Bucher never looked back.

Erbenova, who is usually the fastest on the bike lost over three minutes to the speedy “Swiss Miss” at this race.  Out of T2 it was Bucher with four minutes over Slack, then Muller and Erbenova very close together.  Erbenova crushed the run taking back five minutes from Bucher but had lost too much in the swim and bike.  It was a great performance by the 2012 European Women’s Champ and if Bucher stays in form this has the makings of a great summer long battle.

Slack and Muller raced hard passing and then re-passing with Katrin besting Jacqui by just 3 seconds.  Bubu Lorblanchet was making her first start since a bad foot injury to finish 5th and quickly collapsed at the finish, totally exhausted.  She bounced back after a quick trip to the “medico’s” and will concentrate on training over the next few weeks.  She will miss Greece but return in Switzerland later this month.

So Ruben Ruzafa is now two-for-three.  World Champion 2008, 2nd in Italy 2009, and now Spanish champion 2013.  He plans on racing at XTERRA Berga, XTERRA Germany, XTERRA USA and World Championships this year.

Ben was OK with finishing second and gaining valuable points on Lebrun but wanted the win.  Asa was only OK with his 3rd and will go to Greece wanting a win.  The season has the appearance of a great shootout between Allen, Shaw and Lebrun with interlopers like Ruzafa coming along from time to time and let’s not overlook Alex Haas who came down with a chest virus and Hector Guerra who showed some amazing form today.

All I can say about the weekend is “wow”.  Organizers Eduardo, Catalina, Pepe, Diego, Thomas, Vincente and the others deserve the highest marks for pulling this one off and making it look great.  The weather in this part of Spain is fabulous and the northerners were simply smiling with joy at the great sun and breezes.  Cieza is a wonderful city with old Plaza’s and churches mixed with more modern buildings – narrow twisty streets next to flowered boulevards, and has great food and drink at less than budget prices.  It’s easy enough to get to with a 3-hour drive from Madrid or just an hour from Alicante airport.  All this and it was the first race of the year!  Best get some tickets bought and get over here for the battles and the Live More experience.

Also: Rocio Espada Vazquez, Nuria Morrio Perez

Complete Results

Next on the XTERRA World Tour: XTERRA Spain was the first European Tour and ninth World Tour event to qualify amateur athletes into the XTERRA World Championship to be held in Kapalua, Maui on October 27, 2013.  Next up, the inaugural XTERRA Greece off-road tri at Lake Plastira in two weeks.

Date - Race, Location
Feb 24 -  XTERRA South Africa Championship, Western Cape
Mar 2 - XTERRA Philippines Championship, Cebu
Mar 9 - XTERRA Motatapu, South Island, New Zealand
Mar 9 - XTERRA Saipan Championship, Northern Marianas
Mar 23 - XTERRA Guam Championship, Piti
Apr 7 - XTERRA Great Ocean Road, Anglesea, Victoria, Australia
Apr 13 - XTERRA New Zealand Championship, Rotorua
Apr 28 - XTERRA Malaysia Championhip, Putrajaya
June 2 - XTERRA Spain Championship, Cieza, Murcia
June 15 - XTERRA Greece, Lake Plastira
June 22 - XTERRA Brazil Championship, Ilhabela, SP
June 29 - XTERRA Switzerland Championship, Vallee de Joux
July 7 - XTERRA France Championship, Xonrupt, Gerardmer
July 14 - XTERRA Victoria, Canada
July 20 - XTERRA Abruzzo, Lago di Scanno, Italy
Aug 3 - XTERRA Mexico Championship, Tapalpa, Jalisco
Aug 4 - XTERRA Canmore, Canada
Aug 10 - XTERRA Czech Championship, Prachatice
Aug 17 - XTERRA Germany Championship, Zittau
Aug 24 - XTERRA Japan Championship, Marunuma
Aug 31 - XTERRA Ecuador,
Sept 8 - XTERRA England, Cranleigh, Surrey
Sept 21 - XTERRA USA Championship, Ogden/Snowbasin, UT
Oct 27 - XTERRA World Championship, Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii