McPherson, Bucher win XTERRA Thailand

Phuket, Thailand – Kieran McPherson from New Zealand and Renata Bucher from Switzerland won the inaugural XTERRA Phuket off-road triathlon on a magnificent morning in Thailand.

It’s the first career XTERRA World Tour win for McPherson, and the 34th for Bucher who has now won an XTERRA major in 15 different countries.

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In the men’s race Ben Allen turned in a blazing 21:01 swim to lead McPherson and a chase group including fellow Aussies Brodie Gardner and Taylor Charlton out of the water by two minutes.

“The race was pretty epic. I finished second today to Kieran who had a phenomenal race and brought it home during the run and that’s where it counted,” said Allen. “For me it was a pretty interesting race. Had a pretty good swim, big lead out of the water. Jumped on the bike and felt good so I went pretty hard but you know it’s typical Asian racing. I almost got hit by a car turning on to the road, took two wrong turns. I had a flat tire and everything that could have went wrong, went wrong.”

“But I got into transition two and started to run hard but again cramps on the run from the heat. Kieran came flying past and I tried to hang with him as long as I could but the legs just didn’t have it today.”

But the day belonged to McPherson as he push his body to his first XTERRA major victory in his second season racing.

“Ben put a pretty good lead out of the water,” he said. I tried to push hard on the bike to try to cut into his lead and catch him before the flat section. I kind of just cooked myself.”

“I could see Ben coming out of transition and I knew I had a lot of work ahead of me. I caught him after about 4 or 5kms and I never looked back.”

“It was hard, I fell over a few times in the last few kilometers and just couldn’t feel my legs anymore.”

“This is my first ever victory for XTERRA in my second season … can’t really complain about that,” he added with a giant grin. “A really happy day.”

 

In the women’s race, American Kelli Montgomery led the ladies out of the water with Bucher on her heals.

But Bucher using transition to her advantage exited to the bike with the lead and never looked back finishing in 3:10:22.

“There’s always this fine between pushing hard and really suffering,” Bucher said. “It’s hot, it’s humid and these hills are really steep and slippery but I actually love the technical part when it’s a slippery downhill. I love that so much and I think I made a bit of time there.”

“On the run I just pushed through and had the big goal in front of me to make it happen. To win in another country and for the first time in Thailand. Every time it’s a gift, you never know what can happen and I told myself to never cry if I don’t win but now I have tears from just being so happy.”

For Montgomery her day was a battle for second place against XTERRA newcomer Marika Wagner of Sweden. The pair changed positions on the bike with Wagner coming into T2 in second place behind Bucher by posting the fastest bike split at 1:55:21.

“I felt like I swam pretty well, then got on the bike and tried to start more conservative and build the pace throughout watching how hard I went on the hills.”

“Markia passed me half-way through the bike, she had a nice bike split but I tried to settle into a pace and catch her on the run.”

Montgomery made her pass around mile two and finished nearly nine minutes back of Bucher at 3:19:25.

For Wagner she added, “I didn’t know what to expect from the other girls so I just had to do my own race. I managed to find a good pace on the bike but my most challenging part was the swim.”

“I saw the next girl on the run coming out of T2 and she looked like a good runner. I tried to go as hard as I could as I thought she would pass me but I decided that she wouldn’t get it easy.”

For its inaugural event, XTERRA Thailand received high marks for the event operation and the quality of the course from amateurs and pros alike.

The stunning scenery, incredible people and vibrant adventures you can find in Phuket has not gone unnoticed by all who made the journey to this island in the Andaman Sea. There should be many familiar faces next year.

2017 XTERRA Asia-Pacific Tour Point Standings After Two

PL NAME, NAT TOT SPN THA 1 Kieran McPherson, NZL 131 56 75 2 Ben Allen, AUS 128 61 67 3 Markus Benesch, AUT 102 51 51 4 Brodie Gardner, AUS 100 39 61 5 Will Kelsay, USA 94 47 47 6 Sam Osborne, NZL 75 75 DNS 7 Aleksandr Dorovskikh, RUS 72 36 36 8 Bradley Weiss, RSA 67 67 DNS 9 David Ballesteros, ESP 56 DNS 56 10 Takahiro Ogasawara, JPN 51 21 30 11 Michal Bucek, SVK 48 23 25 12 Yuichi Hosoda, JPN 43 43 DNS 13 Taylor Charlton, AUS 43 DNS 43 14 Jacob Storey 39 DNS 39 15 Dominik Wychera, AUT 33 33 DNS 16 Fabrizio Bartoli, ITA 33 DNS 33 17 Joe Miller, PHI 30 30 DNS 18 Emil Duraj, SVK 27 27 DNS 19 Peter Pouly, FRA 27 DNS 27 20 Akihiko Maeda, JPN 25 25 DNS

XTERRA Phuket was the fifth of 41 events where amateur athletes from around the world could qualify to race at the 22nd annual XTERRA World Championship at Kapalua, Maui on October 29.

2017 XTERRA World Championship Qualifying Series Schedule

Date Race Elite Winners or Location Feb 25 XTERRA South Africa Richard Murray / Flora Duffy Mar 4 XTERRA Motatapu Dougal Allan / Josie Wilcox Mar 18 XTERRA Saipan + Silver Sam Osborne / Carina Wasle Mar 25 XTERRA Argentina # Silver Gonzalo Tellechea / Suzie Snyder Apr 1 XTERRA Thailand + Silver Kieran McPherson / Renata Bucher Apr 1 XTERRA Chile # Silver San Bernardo, Santiago Apr 2 XTERRA Malta * Silver Majjistral Nature Reserve Apr 8 XTERRA New Zealand + Silver Rotorua, North Island Apr 9 XTERRA Costa Rica # Silver Playa Reserva Conchal Apr 16 XTERRA La Reunion La Reunion Island Apr 23 XTERRA Cyprus * Silver Lara Beach/Akamas, Paphos Apr 23 XTERRA Cebu + GOLD Danao, Cebu, Philippines Apr 29 XTERRA Asia-Pacific Championship / Malaysia + GOLD Langkawi, Malaysia Apr 30 XTERRA Greece * Silver Vouliagmeni May 6 XTERRA Tahiti + Silver Moorea May 14 XTERRA Spain * Silver Taragonna May 14 XTERRA Brazil # Silver Ilha Bella, Sao Paolo May 20 XTERRA Oak Mountain # GOLD Pelham, AL, USA May 27 XTERRA Portugal * Silver Golega Jun 10 XTERRA Belgium * Silver Namur Jun 17 XTERRA Mine over Matter ^ Milton, Ontario, Canada Jun 18 XTERRA Finland * Silver Imatra Jun 24 XTERRA Switzerland * GOLD Vallee de Joux Jul 2 XTERRA France * GOLD Xonrupt Jul 9 XTERRA Victoria # Silver Victoria, B.C., Canada Jul 15 XTERRA Beaver Creek # GOLD Beaver Creek, CO, USA Jul 30 XTERRA Abruzzo * Silver Scanno, Abruzzo, Italy Aug 5 XTERRA Mexico # GOLD Tapalpa Aug 5 XTERRA Norway * Silver Norefjell Aug 6 XTERRA Canmore ^ Canmore, Alberta, Canada Aug 12 XTERRA Quebec ^ Quebec City, Canada Aug 12 XTERRA Parry Sound ^ Ontario, Canada Aug 13 XTERRA Dominican Republic # Silver Barahona Aug 13 XTERRA Poland * Silver Krakow Aug 19 XTERRA Germany * GOLD Zittau Aug 26 XTERRA Sweden * Silver Hammarbybacken, Stockholm Aug 26 XTERRA Sleeping Giant ^ Thunder Bay, ON, Canada Sep 2 XTERRA Japan + Silver Hokkaido Sep 3 XTERRA European Championship / Denmark * GOLD Mons Klint Sep 16 XTERRA Pan American Championship / USA # D-GOLD Ogden, Utah, USA Oct 29 XTERRA World Championship Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii

* XTERRA European Tour / # XTERRA Pan American Tour / + Asia-Pacific Tour

Silver = Min. $7,500 pro purse & 75-point scale // GOLD = Min $15,000 pro purse & 100-point scale.

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