Ruzafa, Paterson win XTERRA France
Press Release / 03.07.2016
Ruben Ruzafa and Lesley Paterson captured the XTERRA France Championship titles in Xonrupt.
The win is Ruzafa’s third straight on the European Tour this year and his 22nd XTERRA major victory in 27 races since winning Worlds as a rookie in 2008. For Paterson, the win is her second major this season (she won XTERRA Tahiti back in May) and the 14th of her career. “I like this course and I like this race,” said Ruzafa, who has won it three years in a row now. “It is very technical and this is where I am at my best. I rode very good today and was able to control everything. It was almost perfect for me.”
In the men’s race Aussie Ben Allen had the fastest swim of the day followed by Veit Honle from Germany, and those two got the early lead on the bike but by the halfway point it was Ruzafa in the lead thanks to his race-best 1:02:37 bike split. By the bike-to-run transition Ruzafa had more than five minutes on South Africa’s Bradley Weiss, and cruised into the finish line with a winning time of three hours, seven-minutes flat.
Behind Ruzafa, Yeray Luxem from Belgium was powering his way to the fastest run of the day and overtook Weiss to finish as the runner-up. “This course is good for me,” said Weiss. “I came out of the water with Ruben but he was so strong on the bike I could not keep up with him. Then on the run Yeray surprised me. He was going so fast and when he passed me I knew I must settle for third.” Honle finished in 4th for the second week in a row and Damien Guillemet finished in 5th.
In the women’s race it was all Lesley Paterson, who has proven time-and-time again that when the going gets tough, she gets going.
"XTERRA France lives up to its reputation...the beauty, the true toughness and the unbelievable organization and support,” said Paterson, who owns two XTERRA World Championships, an ITU Cross Tri World Title, and was the European Championship race winner last season. “I felt great all day and just so grateful to be able to compete against great gals and in one of the best XTERRAs I’ve ever experienced! Roll on the rest of the summer!
Jacqui Slack took the early lead out of the swim, with Tour leader Brigitta Poor and Paterson close behind, but once Paterson got in front 'that was that.' I knew this was a long race so I took it very easy on the first lap of the bike,” said Paterson. “I heard Renata was close to me so I pushed really hard on the second lap and got a good gap.”
Bucher did have a great bike, cut into Paterson’s lead and worked her way into the second position where she stayed through the finish line. “I was so disappointed and sad after Switzerland,” said Bucher, who finished 4th in her home country last weekend. “I rode good today and the race was long, so I was able to make enough time to keep second place on the run.”
Erbenova, who finished in third, had a good run to make her way to the podium, but thinks she fell too far behind during the opening swim leg. “My swim was just terrible today,” said the reigning European Tour Champion, who came out of the water four-minutes behind Paterson and two-minutes behind Bucher. “I worked hard to move up into third, and am very happy with it.”
Brigitta Poor held on for fourth and Myriam Guillot-Boisset finished in 5th.
