Dafflon, Wasle Win XTERRA Finland
Press Release / 29.08.2018
Xavier Dafflon from Switzerland and Carina Wasle from Austria captured the second annual XTERRA Finland off-road triathlon elite titles in Imatra on Sunday, August 26, 2018.
For Dafflon, the 2016 overall amateur XTERRA World Champion, the win is his first this season and second as an elite. For Wasle, the reigning XTERRA Asia-Pacific Champion, it’s the 20th XTERRA World Tour win in her illustrious 14-year career, her third this season, and first in Europe. She’s also now posted an incredible 12 top-3 finishes on the XTERRA European Tour this year and sits atop the standings with just two races remaining.
The race combined a 1.5-kilometer swim in Saimaa Lake with a 30K flat but technical bike leg and finished with a hilly 10K trail run. Conditions were perfect for racing with 19-degree water and air temperatures and the bike and run courses were dry with the exception of a 100-meter swamp crossing on the run, a spot where athletes had to make sure their shoes were on tight.
In the men’s elite race Doug Hall from Great Britain set the early pace, exiting the long swim with the morning’s fastest time of 24:21, followed 45-seconds later by Peter Lehmann from Germany then Jan Kubicek from the Czech Republic in third 1:15 behind.
Pre-race favorite Xavier Dafflon had a good swim by his standards, just four minutes back of Hall.
“I had a good group to swim with and felt my stroke was good throughout, and I was really happy to only lose four minutes in the water today,” said Dafflon.
Hall held the lead deep into the third lap of the bike, but Lehmann closed the gap to just 15-seconds and a fast-moving group containing Kubicek, Dominik Wychera from Austria and Henry Sleight from the UK worked well together to reduce the gap to the front pair.
“There was a really good group working together on the bike, we shared the pace and worked really hard to close the gap to Doug,” said Wychera.
Not far behind was Dafflon, who charged his way to the front of the race and took the lead halfway into the last lap.
“After a good swim I was excited to get to the front of the race as fast as possible, but I didn’t see anybody until the last lap,” exclaimed Dafflon. “I was starting to worry, but then I caught Kubicek and could see everybody just in front and finally I took the lead and pushed really hard to force a gap before transition.”
Dafflon posted the fastest bike split of the day (1:15:30) and took a small lead into the run ahead of Hall, Wychera, and Lehmann.
On a run littered with steep climbs, nobody could touch Dafflon. He recorded the fastest run split in 45:53 and crossed the line unchallenged for the win. Behind him Lehmann slowly built a gap over Wychera and Hall who were going back and forth over the difficult terrain for the final podium slot. Lehmann ended up in second, Wychera third, Hall held on for fourth, and Kubicek finished fifth.
“I am so happy to win again in XTERRA,” exclaimed Dafflon. “I came here to win, so to achieve it was really special.”
Lehmann was happy with his performance as well, saying, “It was hard to push today. I spent a lot of the bike by myself and had to dig really deep on the run. There was a small chance I could catch Xavier on the run, so I tried my hardest but once he was out of sight and I knew I couldn’t catch him, I focused on saving some energy for the next two weeks of racing as I target a good result in the overall tour placings.”
Wasle Fights Back To Win
In the women’s elite race Nicole Walters from the UK led the field out of the water holding a big gap of 1:20 over Wasle with Renata Bucher from Switzerland 1:30 back from the front of the race.
“I felt terrible from the first stroke and had to pace myself over the two laps,” said Walters. “I found some feet and just tried to take it steady. So, when I heard I had a big gap I was surprised, maybe I wasn’t feeling so bad.”
Once on the bike, Wasle was clearly on a mission and posted a race best bike split of 1:29:50 to catch Walters halfway through the second lap. The two worked together on the bike, sharing the pace to keep the gap to Bucher as big as possible.
“I was really surprised to catch Nicole as quickly as I did, it’s quite a flat bike course so I wasn’t expecting to go so well,” said Wasle. “When I caught her, we worked together to keep the speed high. I would push the technical parts and she would ride hard on the fire roads.”
Bucher also rode well and came into transition less than one-minute from the front of the race.
“I rode the whole bike by myself and had no idea how far back I was,” said Bucher. “I tried to ride smooth to stay fast to keep some energy for the run.”
At the bike-to-run transition Wasle took charge and created a big gap to Walters during the first 5K lap. Walters started her second lap 2:42 back and her second-place position looked to be under threat from Bucher.
With such a big lead Wasle was able to relax and enjoy the second lap on the way to her first European Tour victory of 2018.
“I very happy to finally win in Europe this year,” said Wasle. “This run was perfect for me, very technical with lots of steep uphills and downhills so I knew this race provided my best chance to get a win. I’m looking forward to racing in Norway next week, and if I have a good race there I can win the tour with a race to spare!”
Bucher faded on the steep climbs of the second lap allowing Walters to enjoy a runner-up finish. Bucher held on for third, with Jessie Roberts from the UK in 4th, and Yulia Surikova, the reigning ITU Winter Triathlon Champion, in 5th.
