MARIGOT—Local favourite Dean Hodge won the Individual category of Sunday’s Monster Energy Xterra Duathlon, the third race of the series, with a margin of a minute and a half over main rival Grégoire Pigeon in an exciting duel on the trails of Bellevue. He then celebrated with the added bonus of winning the series on points, sharing the overall title with Sandra Garnier.
Individuals ran two laps of 2.2K course followed by four laps of a 4K mountain bike course, before finishing with one lap of the running course.
Despite Tri-athlete Pigeon bursting out of the blocks on the run segment to gain a two minute advantage, Hodge used his superior mountain biking skill to power past Pigeon on the second lap of the bike course and held the lead to the finish, crossing the line in 1:27:10.
“Dean is so good on the mountain bike, there was not much else I could do, but I will try to get my revenge in the next race,” rued Pigeon afterwards.
Asked if his running is where he wants it to be, Dean said not yet.
“I only started trail running two months ago twice a week. I can up my running a lot more.”
A proven bike rider, it was unusual to see Mark Maidwell running but as he reminded he always used to run, and trained for two weeks for the run portion leading up the race. He finished in third place in 1:34:47.
Individual Women was won by Sandra Garnier (1:44:19), Annelies Starreveld was second (1:58:21) and Susy Piscione third (2:06:22).
ASM Club’s Bannis Ridge posted an excellent time in Individual Juniors with 1:37, the fourth fastest time of the day. ASM’s Kianny Noel was second (1:56) and Kenrick Cozier third (2:01).
Teams did the same bike and run course four times, but partners alternated each time.
In the Men’s Teams category Benoit Perrichot and Jeremie Martin from the Gendarmerie’s sports club CLSG actually clinched the fastest time of the day in 1:27 to edge second placed Fred Quetat (bike) and Kai Piscione (1:33) while Dedou Benitez (bike) and David Thomas (run) took third place (1:35).
There was only one all women’s team; Sylvie Morrisseau and Isabelle Davis while Mary Wrigley (run) and Alban Clerc (bike) won the Mixed Team category finishing in 1:50:32.
59 registered for the Xterra, the most ever for this event. Early morning rain made the bike course a little slippery to begin with but it quickly dried out to remain fast and dry for most of the laps. Participants commended organisers Tri Sport Marigot for the well marked courses.
