THIS WEEK: The XTERRA world turns its attention to Snowbasin and the Wasatch Mountain Range near Ogden, Utah for Saturday’s XTERRA Mountain Championship. A look at the updated pro start list and course description is below, along with a preview to tomorrow’s trail run in Ogden. The XTERRA TV crew is in Utah to film the event, while Global Tour managing director is in Europe for the XTERRA Denmark Championship.

AUGUST RACES:
8/17 – XTERRA Golden Spike 12k Trail Run (Ogden, UT)
8/18 – XTERRA Pain Terrain Trail Run (Blue Springs, MO)
8/18 – XTERRA DINO Logansport (Logansport, IN)
8/18 – XTERRA Denmark (Arhus, Jutland)
8/18 – XTERRA MOUNTAIN CHAMPIONSHIP (Ogden/Snowbasin, UT)
8/19 – XTERRA Charlottesville (Charlottesville, VA)
8/19 – XTERRA Mt. Tamalpais Trail Run (Marin, CA)
8/25 – XTERRA Mountainman (Kaaawa, HI – Oahu)
8/25 – XTERRA River Valley Ranch Trail Run (Baltimore, MD)
8/25 - XTERRA Brazil (Ilhabela)
8/25 - XTERRA Japan (Marunuma)
8/25 - XTERRA Austria (Carinthia)
8/26 – XTERRA Schiff Scout (Wading River, NY)
8/26 – XTERRA Blackhawk (Muskegon, MI)
8/26 – XTERRA Wild Ride (McCall, ID)
8/26 – XTERRA Trail Blazer Trail Run (St. Louis, MO)

MTN CHAMPS PRO START LIST UPDATE: Accomplished road triathlete (and winner of the recent Carlsbad Triathlon) Michael Simpson of Canada is a late addition to the men’s pro start list. Simpson finished third in Utah last year behind Mike Vine and Seth Wealing. After last year’s race he said “I love this area, it’s gorgeous. I was blown away, this is as pretty a racecourse as I’ve done. I was really happy to do it and definitely coming back next year.”
The top seven men’s pros from last years race must have agreed with Simpson as they’re all returning (Vine, Wealing, Simpson, Stoltz, Noble, Krause, Ignatz in that order). The 2005 XTERRA Amateur National Champion Andrew Biglow from Boulder, CO will be racing as a pro with XTERRA for the first time.

PRO START LIST BY COUNTRY (MEN)
USA - Jimmy Archer, Brian Astell, Matt Balzar, Andrew Biglow, Ryan DeCook, Craig Evans, Greg Krause, Ryan Ignatz, Tyler Johnson, Will Kelsay, Josiah Middaugh, Spencer Powlison, Brian Smith, Cody Waite, Seth Wealing
AUSTRALIA - Andrew Noble
CANADA – Michael Simpson, Mike Vine, Luke Way
NEW ZEALAND - Mark Leishman
SOUTH AFRICA - Conrad Stoltz

The Jamie Whitmore, Melanie McQuaid rivalry is in full force here in Utah as McQuaid needs a win to move into a tie for the XTERRA U.S. Pro Points Series lead heading into the finale in Nevada next month. If Whitmore wins (and McQuaid finishes second) then Jamie would only need to finish 3rd or better to win the Series.

Those two have the hottest rivalry in the multisport world. As proof, in the last 26 championship races they’ve both entered stretching back to the 2003 season Whitmore has 13 wins and McQuaid has 12. In 22 of those they’ve finished 1-2, and a bunch of them have been decided by a minute or less.

There will be great battles behind them as well with Jennifer Smith in great form, the steady Candy Angle always a threat, and fresh faces like Dara Marks Marino and Shonny Vanlandingham adding to the competitive mix.

PRO START LIST BY COUNTRY (WOMEN)
USA - Candy Angle, Jennifer Gersbach, Jari Kirkland, Kristy, Lanier, Dara Marks Marino, Amber Monforte, Sara Tarkington, Shonny Vanlandingham, Jamie Whitmore
CANADA - Melanie McQuaid
NEW ZEALAND - Jenny Smith

MOUNTAIN CHAMPS COURSE: The aptly named XTERRA Mountain Championship race venue at Snowbasin has seen world-class competition before as home to the downhill and super G races of the 2002 Winter Olympic events, but this time the competitors will be in the water, on mountain bikes, and in trail running shoes.

It starts with a 1.5K swim in the calm and clean Pineview Reservoir, which is a 20-minute drive from downtown Ogden and situated at about 5,000 feet above sea level. At the first transition area, racers will hop on their mountain bikes to start a 30K ride to Snowbasin Resort. The ride traverses dirt and rocky trails as it meanders into Wheeler Canyon, a spectacular slot canyon shrouded in oak, aspen and pine trees.

From there the trail opens into a field splattered with a colorful array of wildflowers. Competitors climb about 1,800 feet on the way to Snowbasin, and once there they'll loop through the spectator-friendly base area before switching gear at T2 and heading out on an idyllic, hilly 10K trail run. The run course zigzags its way through aspen groves and fields of wildflowers and tops out at about 8,000 feet before finishing near the bottom of the Olympic downhill ski run.

Once the race is over athletes are in for a special treat as the awards dinner takes place at the Ogden Amphitheater where there will be a highlight video from the race and a concert by Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers from Louisiana. The post-race celebration presented by Biker’s Edge promises to be one of the coolest evenings of the summer. Local restaurants including Roosters Brewing Company, Bistro 258, Union Grill, Peddler's, Athenian, Artisan Grill and Rickenbacker's Bistro will serve-up award-winning food at the Taste of Ogden's Historic 25th Street open-air dining extravaganza that will also feature the Pacifico Beer garden.

THE GOLDEN EVENT: Friday night’s XTERRA Golden Spike 12k Trail Run sits as the final leg of the 2007 XTERRA Utah Series. Visitors and locals alike will enjoy running with Mother Nature on the single track trails along the Ancient Bonneville Shoreline with commanding vistas of the Great Salt Lake and the City of Ogden. The race starts at 6:00 PM at the Dee Events Center on the campus of Weber State University and works its way down to the path alongside the Ogden River towards Amphitheater Park in Downtown, where the excitement of the XTERRA Festival awaits. Being the last of 4 events in the Series, the overall regional champions will be crowned at 7:00 PM. Top finishers in each age group from the Series are then eligible to race at the XTERRA Trail Running National Championship in Lake Tahoe, Nevada on Sept. 29.

XTERRA TV IN UTAH: The award-winning TEAM TV crew is in Utah and filming all the race action for a half-hour TV show to be broadcast via national syndication reaching two million viewers starting in May 2008.

XTERRA DENMARK PREVIEW: Kahuna Dave Nicholas – the managing director of the XTERRA Global Tour – is in Denmark for this weekend’s XTERRA Denmark Championship and brings us this race preview:

After two months of inactivity, the XTERRA European Tour starts up again this weekend in the north of Denmark in the old university city of Aarhus. This is the second year for the location and things are shaping up well. The seasonal rains stopped today, the sun is out, the wind is coming off the sea and hopes are high for perfect conditions on Saturday.

The pro field should provide some sizzle up front. Ronnie Dietz was second to Nico Lebrun last year and to move up one place will face tough competition from Fabien Combaluzier (France) and Lieuwe Boonstra (South Africa) who battled hard to 3rd and 4th last year and continued their fight in Sardinia. Young Belgium pro Jim Thijs beat both of them at the first race of the year and is getting stronger. Without Lebrun and Marceau who are busy with a French race, this is anyone’s race. The wild card must be the return of Spain’s David Vito Henestrosa. Vito is a European Tour winner and racing up front would not surprise me.

The women’s side will be a renewal of Italy with the top 4 all here in Denmark. Eszter Erdelyi of Hungary, Carina Wasle (Austria), Sybille Matter (Swiss) and Michelle Lombardy (South Africa) should provide some fun. Sybille is very fast in the swim, Michelle is good and neither Carina nor Eszter are very quick in the water. But they are hunters on the bike and run and their catch-up chase will be terrific to watch as the Danish course is two laps of everything. Plotting their progress will be entertaining and easy. Ingrid vanLubek (Holland) was second in the rain last year and along with Claudia Frank (Germany) will be making their first 2007 XTERRA appearance.

A large and diverse age group field will also tow the line representing 18 different countries from Hong Kong to Finland. Denmark is followed a week later at a new city, Klopeinersee in the Carinthian area of Austria. After Austria, everyone has a week to recover and then we finish with two more races; the Black Forest of Germany and the green woods of Wales.
Let the second season begin.

XTERRA TV: Great adventures from Nevada, Hawaii, and Saipan are hitting airwaves in major markets across the U.S. this weekend…

City
Date
Network
Time
Show

Binghamton, NY
8/18
WIVT (ABC)
5:30-6:00 pm
XTERRA Planet from Reno

Colorado Springs, CO
8/18
KRDO (ABC)
3:30-4:00 am
XTERRA Planet from Nevada

Comcast Sports-CPB
8/18
CN8-CPB (CAB)
7:00-7:30 pm
XTERRA Planet from Hawaii
9:30-10:00 pm
XTERRA Saipan Championship

Elmira, NY
8/18
WETM (NBC)
1:00-1:30 pm
XTERRA Planet #6

Erie, PA
8/18
WICU (NBC)
1:00-1:30 pm
XTERRA Planet from Hawaii

Ft. Wayne, IN
8/19
WFFT (FOX)
12:00-12:30 pm
XTERRA Planet from Reno

Green Bay, WI
8/19
WLUK (FOX)
12:00-12:30 pm
XTERRA Planet from Nevada
12:30-1:00 pm
XTERRA Planet #6

Greensboro, NC
8/18
WGSR (IND)
5:00-5:30 pm
XTERRA Planet from Hawaii
5:30-6:00 pm
XTERRA Saipan Championship

Helena, MT
8/18
KHBB (ABC)
11:30am-12:00pm
XTERRA Planet from Reno

Indianapolis, IN
8/19
WISH (CBS)
12:00-1:00 pm
2007 Nevada Passage

Knoxville, TN
8/18
WVLT-DT (MY)
5:00-6:00 pm
2007 Nevada Passage

New York, NY
8/19
FXSP (CAB)
7:00-7:30 am
XTERRA Planet from Reno
1:00-1:30 pm

XTERRA Planet from Reno
8/20
2:30-3:00 pm
XTERRA Planet from Hawaii

Norfolk, VA
8/19
WTKR (CBS)
12:30-1:00 pm
XTERRA Planet #6

Reno, NV
8/18
KOLO (ABC)
4:00-4:30 pm
XTERRA Planet from Hawaii
3:30-4:00 pm

XTERRA Planet from Reno
8/19
12:30-1:30 pm
2007 Nevada Passage

Syracuse, NY
8/19
WSYR (ABC)
1:00-1:30 pm
XTERRA Planet from Hawaii

Washington, DC
8/19
WJAL (IND)
1:00-1:30 pm
XTERRA Planet from Nevada
1:30-2:00 pm
XTERRA Planet #6
2:00-2:30 pm
XTERRA Planet from Hawaii
2:30-3:00 pm
XTERRA Planet from Reno

Watertown, NY
8/18
WWTI (ABC)
1:30-2:00 pm
XTERRA Planet #6
5:30-6:00 pm
2007 XTERRA Planet #7
3:00-3:30 am
XTERRA Planet from Reno

Yakima, WA
8/19
KVEW (ABC)
4:30-5:00 pm
XTERRA Planet from Reno