Seth Wealing, Fabiola Corona win XTERRA Mexico Championship

Trey Garman / 06.09.2010

American Seth Wealing defended his title at the XTERRA Mexico Championship in Valle de Bravo this morning while Mexico's own Fabiola Corona took the women's title.

Here's a look at the podium; with Wealing and Corona on the top step; Dan Hugo and Shonny Vanlandingham in 2nd; and Francisco Serrano and Daniela Campuzano in third.

The managing director of the XTERRA World Tour, "Kahuna Dave" Nicholas, was on-site and brings us this report and these photos:
The forecast was rain. At the race briefing last night, I promised the crowd that I had brought Hawaiian weather to this fabulous place just outside Mexico City and Toluca – and I kept my promise.

On cue at 0815 Saturday morning, the sun popped up over the mountains and sunshine covered the area. It was good it happened as we had a huge thunderstorm Friday evening that left everything soaking wet. Transition, which was on a rather steep slope, became a quagmire with people slipping and sliding all morning. The sun did its job and by the time riders were coming back to T2, some of the mud had dried – not much mind you, but enough so the disaster of all the bike racks crashing into the lake never happened. Full marks to the XTERRA Mexico crew as they propped the downhill rack legs with bricks and secured everything with rebar and put the area in fantastic order.

The elites started with a one-minute lead on the men’s field and two minutes on the women. Irvin Perez led everyone out of the swim followed by Mexican favorite Francisco “Paco” Serrano and Seth Wealing. Wealing had a terrible time getting his skinsuit off but after much yelling and yanking, finally left transition in 4th place behind Dan Hugo. Hugo was tearing it up on the bike. He knew Seth and Paco were runners and wanted to get three to four minutes over them on the bike. He seemed to have it done when he slid on the very muddy conditions and banged his right knee quite hard.
Slippery? Did I mention the mud and puddles? Slipping and sliding and mud were the order of the day. That, along with chickens and dogs, horses and even a donkey all made Valle de Bravo one exceptional event.