Middaugh, Baker win XTERRA Beaver Creek

Press Release / 18.07.2016

­Reigning XTERRA World Champion Josiah Middaugh defended his home turf and rookie women's pro Julie Baker took the top step in her elite debut on an absolutely epic day in the mountains at the 8th annual XTERRA Beaver Creek Championship in Avon, Colorado this morning. The win is Middaugh's fourth in a row on his home course (he lives and trains just one-mile down the road) and his fourth in a row this season following victories at XTERRA Argentina, XTERRA Tahiti, and XTERRA Oak Mountain.  

For Baker, who won the overall amateur XTERRA USA and World Championship titles last year, the win re-affirms her decision to go pro.  Of note, 24-year-old Tess Amer from Boulder, Colorado actually had the fastest women's time of the day in 2:37:21, however, due to the two-minute start time difference between the pro women's swim wave and the amateur women's start, she crossed the finish line in 2nd.

In the men's race, local pro Brad Zoller swam up front in the 66-degree, wetsuit-legal waters of Nottingham Lake all by himself and had the fastest swim split of the day in 19:14 with Branden Rakita, Leon Griffin, Greg Bennett, Rom Akerson and Ben Hoffman all together about 30-seconds back.

Middaugh had a good swim by his standards (21:01) and in what has become a commonplace occurrence here at Beaver Creek, he made up the difference by the end of the first big (brutal) climb about five miles into the bike. "I felt good in the swim," said Middaugh. "I knew there was a gap, but it was okay, it was a pretty good gap for me.  I was worried that I was going to come out and be 2:30 behind, but I was able to keep it close enough, I think it was 1:30ish, so it was right where I wanted to be."

By mile 11 Middaugh was 25-seconds ahead of the Costa Rican, Akerson, and roughly one-minute in front of Hoffman and the young gun Sam Long.  (Long, at just 20-year-old, was racing in his first-ever XTERRA. The CU student has only been pro for a month!)

By the time Middaugh hit the last twisty downhill section of the bike course called Corkscrew he had increased his lead on Akerson to 1:15, had 1:40 on Hoffman and Long, and 2:40 to Rakita riding in fifth. Despite posting the fastest bike of the day (1:10:13) and taking the lead into the run Middaugh said the race was far from over. "I did not have much left on the run," he said.  "For the first time in a couple of years I was in survival mode."

Survive he did, and with the win moves into the lead of the Pan Am Pro Series standings. Behind him the longshot Sam Long put in the fastest run split of the day and caught Hoffman and Akerson to move into second-place just 20-seconds behind the world champ.

"Outrageous, I can't even believe it right now," said Long, who has a double major going at CU in psychology and integrated physiology.  "2nd in a pro race, against these guys, it's incredible."

Akerson was equally excited to hold off Hoffman and finish in third.

"On the run the Long and I hit the first big climb together and man can that kid run fast downhill," said Akerson.  "I mean, I thought I could run fast downhill but he really went at it. I was just killing my legs going down and he just kept opening it up and I thought Hoffman was going to catch me too but he didn't, so I guess I had a solid run and pulled it off."

Hoffman finished in fourth, his fifth straight top four at this event.

"That was painful like always," said Hoffman.  "I thought I would have a better day but when the run started I just didn't have any punch. The main objective was to punch my ticket for Maui so I got that done.  I didn't crash, and it's fun.  I love getting out here and doing something different, it's definitely a good fun battle with all these guys. Josiah took it to us like he always does.  He's a class act and a world champion so I'm not surprised, but I'll be back next year probably to see if I can go on better."

Leon Griffin passed Rakita on the run to round out the top five, and after the race said "it was a blast, certainly going to try to do more of these in the future."