Olympic Champion Flora Duffy Wins 6th XTERRA Worlds
Hayden Wilde of New Zealand and Flora Duffy of Bermuda won the elite titles at XTERRA World Championship on a rainy, muddy day at the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua on Maui’s northwest coast.
As heavy surf forced replacement of the swim with a 3 km trail run, the 25th XTERRA World Championship was conducted over a rugged duathlon course that rewarded two Olympic medalists with off-road victories to add to their already glittering resumes.
For this year’s Olympic gold medalist Flora Duffy of Bermuda, Maui was the site of her 6th XTERRA World Championship which, when added to Duffy’s 2016, 2017 and 2021 World Triathlon Olympic distance crowns and the 2015 and 2016 ITU Cross Triathlon Championships, is her 11th World Title.
Duffy opened with a strong 3km run, finishing with an 18 seconds margin over Michelle Flipo of Mexico. Using her masterful off-road touch on the mountain bike section, Duffy finished the 31-kilometer section with a 5:22 lead on Loanne Duvoisin of Switzerland. Using her trail running mastery and her 33-minutes per 10k power on the 11-kilometer trail run, Duffy finished the event in 2:39:49 with a 7:07 lead on Duvoisin and 10:28 over bronze medalist Michelle Flipo of Mexico.
“Happy to perform well and win my sixth title,” Duffy told XTERRA media. “Racing a duathlon was definitely a surprise, it made it a lot harder out there, but it was definitely the right call (to cancel the swim). I really enjoy finishing my season here, and I want to thank everyone who cheered, it was a really special, beautiful way to finish this magical year.”
Duffy expressed relief to have a good result at Maui after a high-pressure season. Still, with shaky weather Maui was no picnic. ““The course is always tough, but we got lucky it didn’t rain as much as we anticipated early on because the second lap of the bike when it started to rain it got real slick out there real quickly, so that was nerve-wracking. I just told myself to stay smooth, and stay on my bike.”
In a duel for second place on the bike, Eleonara Peroncini of Italy was in second place before the rain hit hard and she had a crash that broke her seat and fell off the pace. Whereupon Duvoisin and Flipo moved into second and third places where they stayed until the end.
“I am so happy to have my family here with me today,” said Duvoisin, who had to pull out of this race in 2019 due to a mechanical failure.
. Flipo, who placed second here in 2018, this was her second top three in a row, “It was a tough race, it changed everything on the second lap with the rain, and then on the run I was by myself and trying to catch up to Loanne but I started cramping and was just trying to survive after that.”
Pro Women Results
Pl Name, NAT RUN1 BIKE RUN FINISH
1 Flora Duffy, BER 0:12:38 1:39:57 0:45:32 2:39:49
2 Loanne Duvoisin, SUI 0:12:57 1:44:00 0:48:19 2:46:56
3 Michelle Flipo, MEX 0:12:56 1:45:15 0:50:16 2:50:17
4 Eleonora Peroncini, ITA 0:13:18 1:47:10 0:54:08 2:56:09
5 Suzie Snyder, USA 0:14:23 1:52:05 0:53:31 3:02:01
6 Alizée Paties, FRA 0:13:32 1:52:24 0:55:27 3:02:55
7 Carina Wasle, AUT 0:13:32 1:57:42 0:51:45 3:05:02
8 Amanda Felder, USA 0:13:46 1:56:09 0:55:45 3:07:54
9 Katie Button, CAN 0:14:56 1:56:04 0:58:37 3:11:29
10 Melanie McQuaid, CAN 0:14:03 1:58:42 1:02:42 3:17:21
After one of the greatest seasons in triathlon history, the pressure on Duffy yielded diamonds.
“There was so much pressure and expectations on me going into the Olympics as the gold medal favorite,” she told XTERRA media. “It was a five-year Olympic build (including a year and a half lost to injury recovery), and that extra covid year really added to the intensity. After I won, I was on the highest cloud I could be on but also everything hit me – the expectations, the pressures I was carrying around on my shoulders.
And since then, it’s been difficult to balance all the media obligations while still trying to train and wanting to keep my season going because I had some big goals. I wanted to come here and defend my title, wanted to still race on the World Triathlon circuit, so it’s been a lot and I’m just thrilled I managed to pull off a great race and win my sixth XTERRA. Now I can go on a big holiday.”
While Duffy completed a perfect 6-0 record at XTERRA Worlds with a large margin of victory this year, the men’s race was deep in quality and in very close and fierce contention.
Men's Race
Hayden Wilde of New Zealand, who took bronze at the Tokyo Olympics, fought hard to eke out a 23 seconds margin of victory over runner-up Arthur Serrieres and 54 seconds over perennial XTERRA Worlds contender Ruben Ruzafa of Spain.
Using his world-renowned foot speed on pavement, Wilde led the opening 3km leg om 10:34 by 22 seconds over Brice Daubord of France. While Wilde was competitive on the mountain bike, he lacked Duffy’s domination of the women's field and had to fight hard on the 31-kilometer mountain bike. In the mix on trails made slick with mud by recent rains, Wilde was in the thick of a four-man battle including Serrieres of France, Ruben Ruzafa of Spain and Seth Rider and Josiah Middaugh of the U.S. jousting back and forth just seconds apart.
Wilde pushed hard to maintain touch at the front. ““Full gas from the go, and once I got on the bike I was riding at threshold to see if anyone wanted to come with me and got a little bit of a lead,” said Wilde. “I just kept the pressure on during the first climb, and then a group got me just as we went into the second set of trails so from there we worked together and were all real competitive.”
Midway through the second lap Wilde and Rider surged to the front, with Serrieres and Ruzafa seven seconds back. When the rain started falling, the dynamic changed. “The last 15 minutes of the ride it got real slippery for me because my PSI was a bit too high,” said Wilde. “I was slipping everywhere and that’s when Ruben and the boys with all that experience on the islands flew away from us.”
As usual, former pro mountain biker Ruzafa took the lead with a race-best bike split (1:25:35) at the end of the bike. “I couldn’t take the group until the end of first lap, but then I had to stop to fix my hand lever. But when it started to rain I went very fast and overtook them all.”
Ruzafa was first off the bike at this race for the eighth straight time. At T2, Serrieres followed five second behind Ruzafa, with Wilde and Rider 7 seconds further back.
Rider was thrilled to be in the hunt. “I was pleasantly surprised to be able to keep up with the group on the bike with Ruben and Josiah and Arthur,” he told XTERRA media. “Everything was going really well, and on the second lap Hayden and I opened up a bit of a gap on the second climb, and then it started raining and everything changed. Me and Hayden were slipping all over the place, and Ruben and Arthur came right by us and we were just trying to stay upright for the rest of the bike.”
Wilde passed Serreries and Ruzafa in the first mile of the run and did not look back. Thanks to his foot speed, Wilde finished in 2:18:39 with a 23 seconds lead on Serrieres, 54 seconds on third place Ruzafa, 2:04 on Rider in 4th place and 2:23 on Sebastien Carabin of Belgium in 5th place.
Serrieres had the best seat in the house to evaluate Wilde’s technique on the bike and strategy on the run. ”I was really impressed with Hayden’s skill on the bike and his power, he pushed all the time, and on the first loop when it was dry he rode really fast,” said the two-time XTERRA European Champion. “If it rained a little more or sooner maybe I could’ve won the race, but Hayden was stronger on the run."
25th XTERRA World Championship
Kapalua, Maui
December 5, 2021
Due to strong surf, the swim was replaced by a 3 km opening trail run.
3k Trail Run / 31k Mountain Bike / Trail Run 11 k
Pro Men's Results
Pl Name, NAT RUN1 BIKE RUN FINISH
1 Hayden Wilde, NZL 0:10:34 1:26:33 0:40:11 2:18:39
2 Arthur Serrieres, FRA 0:11:08 1:25:54 0:40:41 2:19:02
3 Ruben Ruzafa, ESP 0:11:13 1:25:35 0:41:16 2:19:33
4 Seth Rider, USA 0:11:08 1:25:51 0:42:14 2:20:43
5 Sebastien Carabin, BEL 0:11:28 1:26:22 0:41:22 2:21:02
6 Josiah Middaugh, USA 0:11:12 1:26:38 0:42:00 2:21:26
7 Maxim Chane, FRA 0:12:05 1:28:06 0:42:37 2:24:16
8 Francisco Serrano, MEX 0:11:24 1:31:15 0:44:07 2:28:04
9 Xavier Dafflon, SUI 0:11:57 1:29:23 0:45:31 2:28:27
10 Geert Lauryssen, BEL 0:12:16 1:32:34 0:46:51 2:33:22
