Big weekend for XTERRA coming up, not only are some of our favorite women racing in Rio but we’re also hosting the 2016 XTERRA European Championship in conjunction with XTERRA Germany in Zittau on Saturday.

It is the 10th of 11 championship events in the 2016 XTERRA European Tour, offers $25,000 USD to the top 10 male and female professionals, crowns XTERRA European Champions, and dishes out Gold-level points to those chasing European Tour titles.

For amateurs it’s their second-to-last chance to score points towards winning an XTERRA European Tour title in their age division, and a chance to secure one of 50 qualifying spots into the 21st edition of XTERRA Worlds in Maui on October 23.

Our managing director Dave Nicholas is on-site for the event and brings us this Thursday update from around Zittau on Thursday…

The organization team that puts XTERRA Germany together is simply fantastic.  Dozens of men and women take vacation and actually create their own little village at the race site.  They have a kitchen, sofa’s, tents and a 4-keg beer bar that is available 24/7.  And they work and they create an environment that is superb.  A huge stage for awards and a monster after party, a dozen or more food vendors with traditional German food and plenty of industry exhibitors.

Zittau is a former East Germany city that is literally a couple miles from both the Czech and Polish border.  It was a coal mining town in the Soviet days and a textile town before that.  After the wall fell, people left east Germany in droves headed to the west.  Today we are seeing young people coming back and making this city vibrant and very alive.  I’ve been to Zittau every year since 2008 and it simply gets better and better every year.

And talk about success?  This year Zittau is also the XTERRA European Championship event.  Entries are up by over 100 from last year’s ETU race and the field boasts more than 50 pros.

The big guns are here; Ruben Ruzafa and Roger Serrano from Spain will face off against Francois Carloni, Arthur Serrieres, Brice Daubord, Nicolas Fernandez and Arthur Forrisier from France.  Toss in Bradley Weiss from South Africa, Mauricio Mendez from Mexico, Sam Osborne from New Zealand and Kris Coddens from Belgium and you have a great field.  And there are a host of young German racers who have shown great speed this season.  Viet Honle, Peter Lehmann and Jens Roth will be highly motivated.

The women will see the return of Swiss winner Michelle Flipo to challenge Helena Erbenova, Brigitta Poor, Renata Bucher, Myriam Guillot-Boisset and Carina Wasle.

The course has had some changes.  The run now will exit and enter over a neat wood bridge via hay bales – the bridge for bikes leading out to the woods has been moved down much closer to the lake and several new pieces of trail have been added.  The run, known for being very flat, now goes immediately to a steep climb that looks like an overgrown, grassy ant hill.  A great spectator spot.  Once out to the woods more climbing has been included but the run will still be very, very fast.

We’ll have some more pics and stories coming up…

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