Outdoors
Gonzalez and Garrard take XTERRA Tahoe City
Tahoe City
A smoke-choked Tahoe Basin greeted XTERRA Tahoe City racers this weekend last year; times were slow, DNFs were up and the post-race barbecue was skipped by most age-groupers in favor of grabbing a surgical mask, and getting inside.
That was '08.
Saturday's off-road triathlon brought a record number of full- and short-course athletes — many of whom came from SoCal (LA, SD, Riverside), the Central Valley (Stockton, Modesto), the Pacific Northwest (Portland, Seattle) and even... Vienna, Austria.
The latter the hometown of second-place men's finisher Julian Langer, 20, last year's XTERRA International Junior Champion.
Langer is summering in the lower 48 to participate in some of the circuit's US Cup races and, though Saturday's field was thin on pro competition, he had his hands plenty full with eventual winner Stockton's Damian Gonzalez of Delta Velo.
"We were actually back and forth the whole race," Gonzalez said. "It wasn't till the last hill on the run, I went ahead.
"...He had me. Really. We were racing together the entire day. He was great on the bike. He's going to be a good racer to watch."
Langer, who counts among his XTERRA 'heroes' South Africans by way of Tahoe and Reno Dan Hugo and Conrad Stoltz, said though Saturday's was not a cup race featuring top comp, it was his "favorite — this year."
"I'm heading to Beaver Creek (Colo. — July, 18)," he said. "But this was a good day — a great course."
Truckee XTERRA pro Emma Garrard made it back-to-back-to-back XTERRA Tahoe City victories cruising for a PB (2:50), on the XTERRA course closest to her home.
"It's a really challenging course, but was really scenic this year," Garrard said. "I like riding through wildflowers. It's always great riding locally, hearing your name.
"I think you can see from today's turnout that there's a need for more of this in Tahoe. It's good for business. It's good for Tahoe City ...it's good for athletes."
"We didn't have smoke this year — that's a start," he said. "The lake was still a little low this year ...but we're hoping this winter will take care of that.
"In all, just the kind of day we wanted."
Women:
1) Emma Garrard
2) Julie Young
3) Lisa Heisinger
Men:
1) Damian Gonzalez
2) Julian Langer
3) John Donovan
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