Christophe van Keerebroek powers down a steep drop during Sunday’s Coors Light Xterra Duathlon. (photo Robert Luckock)
MARIGOT—Mark Maidwell transitioned seamlessly from road bike to mountain bike to win Sunday’s Coors Light Xterra Duathlon in Bellevue in 1:35:01, showing remarkable ability to up his trail running game, finishing the first two run segments with the fastest runners.
Leading triathlete Greg Pigeon was the first to come into the transition for the bike segments after clocking the fastest 11-minute run laps, but broke his chain on the second bike lap and retired. Who knows what the outcome would have been in the rivalry with Maidwell had that not happened, or with Christophe van Kerrebroek for that matter?
Slower on the run but hard riding on the bike brought van Kerrebroek to just 1:48 adrift of Mark Maidwell’s finish time to give him second place in the Individual category and fastest bike lap of 14:00:91. Third place Individual finisher Emmanuel Carban finished some seven minutes later in 1:42:11. Yeudi Destouches was fourth (1:42:55)
Karl Spijker confessed he is not a runner but capitalized on the mountain bike to take fifth place (1:45:45) to edge Juan Pablo Piscione into sixth (1:46:59). Other individuals Ronan Garnier, Dean Hodge, Didier Canet, and Clement Pascal did not finish for technical reasons or exhaustion.
Sandra Garnier won the Individual Women category in 1:53:51. Jahkim Carty won the Junior Individual category and Huc Warriors won the Junior Team category.
The Male Team category was won by Ninja S (Otis Paines and Jeannot) in 1:26:24, D.E.T.SXM (Danny and Raymon were second (1:42:47), and SX Treme (Xavier and Bruce) took third (1:43:04). Mixed Teams was won by SX Treme Love (Andy and Celine) in 1:34:04. The E-bike category was won by X Trip (Samuel and Yann) in 1:24:44.
“I had a very strong runner in Jeannot,” said Otis Paines. “Our game plan was to stay within the top three after the run. I had a flat on the third bike lap and had to switch bikes but in the end we were successful.” Otis’s first bike lap was just seven second slower than Christophe van Kerrebroek’s first lap.
Some 60 participants took part in the race including crew from mega yacht Natalia IV, and young riders from Soualiga Riders and Velo Club de Sandy Ground.
“A lot of the Juniors are road racers aged 13 -14 and some of them were doing mountain bike for the first time which was great to see,” commented organiser Susy Maidwell.
The race was made possible by Coors Light, Tri Sport and SXMMTB for the trail management. Trophies were created by Dot com (Ronan and Sandra Garnier).
