2005 XTERRA World Champ Nicolas Lebrun won his third XTERRA Championship race in as many weeks - this time in his home country - and secured his third consecutive XTERRA European Tour Championship title in the process. With pros counting their best four scores in six events, Lebrun has three wins and a 2nd and with just two races left, no one can do better than that.
Dave “Kahuna” Nicholas, the managing director of the XTERRA Global Tour, was in France watching all the action and here's his report...

XTERRA FRANCE (Auron, Alpes Maritime) 6 July 2008 - The small ski village of Auron does not have the name of the mega resorts of the Alps. Leave that glamour to Corcheval and Chamonix. But when it comes to spectacular scenery, fabulous trails and pristine mountain air, Auron is hard to beat.

Sitting exactly at 1600m (5,200’) the elevation is not too big a factor. The high point of the climb goes past La Croix (the cross) set high on a granite promontory slightly above 1850m (6000’). The course is quite technical and perfect for mountain bikers who can handle fast downhills. Typical of the Alps the run and the bike require climbing and descending – all the time.

Now the swim is something else. Auron promises a bigger pond in the next year, but for now the swim is held in the resort snow making pond. Sounds like the old Keystone swim doesn’t it? But this pond is perhaps half the size of Keystone. It requires a 3 lap swim to get 1,000m and somehow we pulled it off.

The men’s field featured current leader Nico Lebrun who lives only two hours away, Conrad Stoltz making his 3rd European start and the return of Sylvain Dodet. Perhaps you remember when the young Frenchman came to the U.S. with Lebrun and ended up having a terrific season beating the Caveman and Nico for the US title in 2004. Dodet looked to be the man to take over the sport, but an injury has had him laid up for the past few years. Now he has clearance from his doctors and looks terrific. He had not had much practice on the mountain bike and was tentative about his chances, but nobody believed him.

Throw in current 2d place Euro Tour Pro Ronny Dietz along with Felix Schumann and Jorg Scheiderbauer and the Germans were going to factor here. Czech pro’s Karel Zadak and Jan Kubicek were also on the starting line with Belgium Jim Thijs (3rd coming into France), Italian pro’s Gianpietro Defaveri and Alessandro Degasperi and several other strong French racers plus Jim McConnel and Sam Gardner from the UK.

The women’s field saw the return of Renata Bucher, with a big bandage on her right forearm from the accident that kept her away from Czech, to battle with Carina Wasle and Anna Baylis-Scheiderbauer. Stephania Bonazzi came north, young Brit pro Nicola Duggan was there with a few French gals giving XTERRA a try, and Reno’s own Amber Monforte in her 3rd consecutive Euro event. Carina had a great swim and exited the first wave swim ahead of Anna and Renata and only slightly behind Nicola. As the swim got into its second lap the sky suddenly darkened and a quick mountain storm appeared from nowhere with a cold rain and wind that sent everyone scattering. It only lasted a few minutes before blowing out but it was enough to put a big chill in everyone.

Out on the bike Renata and Anna quickly passed everyone and were having a grand battle with Renata taking the lead uphill and Anna passing going down. “I was coming down the big descent and somebody went by me WOoosh !! I looked to see who it was and the uniform said ANNA” is how Renata described it. The Swiss gal put her head down and led Anna (from Australia now living in Germany) into T2 and was able to keep her lead to the end. Carina had a tough day. She started shaking from the cold rain immediately after leaving T1. “I couldn’t hold the handlebars and had to walk the bike. The other girls came by me almost immediately”. She got feeling back on the second lap and started catching up. On the run trails she was back to normal and posted an amazing 43 minute time – 9th fastest overall and almost 8 minutes quicker than either Renata or Anna. This great performance pulled the petite Austrian to 3rd. The big winner today was Anna. Although she hasn’t won yet this year, she has 3 second places and now leads Carina by 8 points with 2 races to go. America’s Amber Monforte has made the last 3 races and it is clear the 5 week/5 race schedule she has done (Pelham, Richmond, Wales, Czech and France) have honed her skills and Amber has gone 6th-5th and now 4th here in France.

As stated in the Czech report, Nico Lebrun is very, very fast this year. We all have witnessed his skills in trail and mountain running but the 2005 XTERRA World Champ has set fastest bike times at two races this year and he did it again in the mountains at Auron. Stoltz took the lead shortly after the swim but Nico was stalking him and came into T2 just ahead. These ultra steep up and downs are not made for a man of Conrad’s size and even with all his skills, the Caveman could not stay with the Frenchman on the run and consolidated himself for another 2nd place finish that pulled him into second in Euro points.

Behind this duo newcomer Jorg Scheiderbauer (Anna’s husband) was setting the 2nd fastest bike and came into T2 ahead of Dodet, Schumann and Sam Gardner. Sylvain was getting more comfortable and said he had a much faster second bike lap. Out onto the run, which had a wicked rope/downhill just a few hundred meters into it, Jorg, Sylvain and Felix were nose to tail. It stayed this way all through the forests and up and down the service roads to about the 8K point. Jorg made a wrong turn when he didn’t see the arrow and went onto the bike course. Dodet followed him but Schumann, who had previewed the course earlier knew better. “I could not understand where they were going – but I knew I was on the proper course” said Schumann. Dodet looked back and saw Felix going another way and turned around. Jorg got to the bottom of the hill before realizing he went astray. So the final had Schumann 3rd, Dodet an excellent 4th in his first race back and Scheiderbauer showing amazing strength in 5th. As he gets more skills on the swim (even Lebrun is faster) Jorg will become a factor.

Auron is about a 1.5 to 2 hour drive from the Nice airport. If you like driving mountain roads that make Mulholland Drive look like a freeway – this could be one of the highlights of the trip. Several wonderful old towns dot the way and the twists and turns up the mountains provide one breathtaking view after the other. Next year’s date will be the 5th of July. Auron promises a full USA 4th celebration the night before the race and celebrating in the sweet town square should be on your list for next year.

For Results and Standings