Twenty-year-old Arthur Forissier from France in his first full season as an elite and veteran XTERRA racer Carina Wasle from Austria in her 11th year of racing took home the titles at the XTERRA Switzerland Championship in Vallee de Joux on Saturday afternoon.
“It was a beautiful day,” said XTERRA managing director Dave Nicholas. “The water was just cold enough for wetsuits and the air temp was in the low 70s with a breeze. The winners were a comeback kid and a brand new kid. Carina Wasle, in her second race after a big crash in Malaysia, took the win by 30-seconds over the vastly improving Brigitta Poor from Hungary. Helena Erbenova was third, just under 30-seconds back of Poor.”
For Wasle the victory marks her 11th career championship title, but first on the European Tour since winning XTERRA Czech back in 2009. She won her first title in her rookie season of 2005 at Germany, would go on to win two more there, plus two in Czech and South Africa, and one each in Brazil, Saipan, Guam, and now Switzerland.
“I was not fully trained last week at XTERRA Greece and could not go fast the whole race,” said Wasle. “Here I felt good everywhere.”
Despite some rash on her right shoulder from coming off the bike, Wasle caught Poor just before T2 and managed a perfect run to take the tape in 2:29:42.
For the men it was all about the young blood. Forissier is not an unknown, he was 7th overall and top amateur against a tough field at XTERRA France but was just 32nd in his elite debut at XTERRA Worlds last year (he was 5th in the 15-19 division at Maui in 2013).
“I am so happy,” said Forissier, who said he was really pushing his training for next week’s XTERRA France Championship but clearly had the chops today. “I was riding close with Luxem and Pyott and started thinking this is so good. Then Yeray and I saw Roger (Serrano) in the distance and we pushed even harder.”
Forissier headed out onto the run in the lead and posted the second-fastest run of the day to win his first XTERRA major in 2:07:10.
Last week’s XTERRA Greece winner Kris Coddens was close in second-place, just 35 seconds back.
“I had to work very hard this past week as it was the last week of school,” smiled Coddens, who works a full-time job on top of his elite racing schedule. “I just arrived last night so I am very happy with the results.”
“Indeed the tall Belgian posted the fastest run of the day but it was not enough to catch Forissier. In fact, it was barely enough to hold off a hard charging Roger Serrano. Roger was passed by Coddens early but reeled him back in on the last uphill,” explained Nicholas.
Coddens said “I had a choice, either run the uphill or save it for the flats. I knew Roger was there and it was not easy.”
Yeray Luxem was back and rode strong holding second place through the first lap of the run, but faded to finish 4th. “On the second lap my body said, enough” grimaced Luxem.
Top 5 Men
1 Arthur Forissier, FRA 2:07:10
2 Kris Coddens, BEL 2:07:45
3 Roger Serrano, ESP 2:08:07
4 Yeray Luxem, BEL 2:09:01
5 Jan Pyott, SUI 2:14:01
Top 5 Women
1 Carina Wasle, AUT 2:29:42
2 Brigitta Poor, HUN 2:30:13
3 Helena Erbenova, CZE 2:30:38
4 Maud Golsteyn, NED 2:33:24
5 Myriam Guillot, FRA 2:35:14