Batelier, McQuaid win XTERRA European Championship in Italy

Press Release / 01.06.2010

Frenchman Franky Batelier was just 15 seconds faster than Olivier Marceau, but that was all he needed to to keep his six-race winning streak alive at the XTERRA European Championship in Italy today. In the women's race, Canadian Melanie McQuaid picked up her first win of season, and her second in Italy (she also won here in 2005).

"Kahuna Dave" Nicholas, the managing director of the XTERRA World Tour, was at the race and brings us this report (and photos)...

Don’t you wish we all had jobs like the weatherman? It makes no difference if you are right or wrong, you still keep your job. All week, the weather for Sunday’s race was predicted as rain, rain, and more rain. Everyone here believed it to be true as for the past five years it has rained slightly during every XTERRA Italy, but much to the delight of competitors and fans the morning dawned picture perfect with temperatures in the mid 70’s, a nice breeze, and not a cloud in sight.

A full field of 400 was in place at 10am and ready to go in 65F degree (17.5C) azure blue, wonderfully clear Mediterranean water. Organizers gave the pro athletes a 50-meter head start and the horn sounded right on time. Like most championships, the swim was two laps with a short beach run. Fabio Guidelli and Gianpietro deGaspari led the swim easily and headed out nose to tail on the bike. At the famous “Orosei Bridge” they had a nice lead on Franky Batelier, Felix Schuman and Olivier Marceau.

That trio quickly gobbled up the Italian duo and Nico Lebrun, Ronny Dietz and Nico Pfitzenmaier were charging up through the field. At the end of the first lap it was Batelier pulling away from Marceau with Felix Schumann solid in third and Nico Lebrun just having passed DeFaveri.