Since he started shopping with us, we've seen Ryan Evans develop from an entry level road rider to someone who's able to compete in the Xterra World Champs in Maui, Hawaii. Incredible stuff. Even better he's more than happy to chat about it.
The last time he came in (already thinking about the next challenge), Gus asked him how it went. Ryan took it a step further and provided us with a great write up with photos. Without any more ado...
On October 26th I competed in my 2nd Xterra World Championships in Maui, Hawaii. I arrived there a week before the race having trained well prior to leaving and also having a good week acclimatising so I felt confident in my preparation.
Race day starts early and lining up on the small Pacific Ocean beach with 550 of the world’s best off-road athletes is quite an intimidating thing. The horn goes off at 9:00 sharp and then it’s total carnage to the first buoy and no matter how hard you try to stay out of trouble you still get beaten up. I did manage to settle right down and ended up putting in a strong swim for me, taking over 4 mins off last year’s time.
The bike was so tough as the temperature was over 100 degrees on the mountain and you really felt every foot of the 4500 climb. I made up my most ground here passing over 115 riders but there was such quality in the field that I was still being overtaken on the final climbs as if I was standing still.
Both transitions had gone well and all that was left was the run, which is 9 miles of sheer pain. It just climbs straight from transition, a horrible rocky cross-country section follows the climb, a downhill and then it gets nasty. Three quarters of a mile on the softest sand beach that was unbearably hot, a half-mile through the ‘Spooky Woods’, then another black sand beach and a final painful section across lava rocks before the finish.
03:31:47 – over 6 minutes quicker than last year and 25 places higher. It was just the hardest thing I have ever done, much worse than last year with the searing heat, but so rewarding to look back on already.
The kit I used for the race was a 2XU Super Elite tri-suit (as well as my 2XU training kit), which was outstanding for the non-wetsuit swim and so comfortable for the remainder of the race. My Specialized Epic Expert 2008, which I have found perfect for this type of racing all season with only adding a set of S-Works bar-ends (thank you Steve Cole at Specialized) and Continental Vertical Pro tyres, which for the second year were superb on the bone dry sandy and extremely sharp rocky terrain (thank you Shelley at Cambrian Tyres) and for the run a pair of Asics Nimbus, which although not an off-road shoe, performed without fault on all the relentless and diverse surfaces.
For all my training, preparation and during the race I used a combination of SIS nutrition products. The PSP22, Electrolyte, Rego and Gels have always been a huge aid to me while training and racing and they didn’t let me down in the harsh conditions of Hawaii (thank you Simon Fryer at Moorelarge).
Lastly, I would like to say thank you to Tredz and especially a huge thank you to Gus for all his help over the past few years since I started riding and especially in the time leading up to this race. I wouldn’t have had the bike ready if it were not for him or the fantastic donations that I received. Thank you Gus and lets look forward to the 2009 off-road season and the Xterra European series……
