The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Success in XTERRA and mountain bike races
For the past several summers Gunnison Valley resident Jenny Smith threw herself into the XTERRA off road triathlon racing circuit.
Building off a fitness base she established during her years of racing mountain bikes, Smith’s success on the professional triathlon circuit came fairly quickly as she became a fixture in the top five with numerous appearances on the podium.
This year, Smith has returned to her mountain bike racing roots as well as continuing her assault on the XTERRA circuit, and is seeing success on both fronts.
“I actually really love mountain biking and I missed it,” says Smith.
In the first week of June, Smith headed to Brazil to take part in the first-ever Amazon XTERRA, coming home with the title and a nasty illness.
“It was totally worth it,” says Smith. “It was awesome.”
The recovery sidelined her for 10 days, forcing Smith to pass up the XTERRA East Championships but she returned to the competitive racing world on her trusty mountain bike, finishing in second place at the Fat Tire 40.
Smith carried her momentum on the mountain bike to a 10th place finish at the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) National Championships in Colorado Springs two weeks ago. Smith is from New Zealand originally and her effort in Colorado Springs earned her a spot on the New Zealand national mountain bike team headed to the World Championships in Québec, Canada in September.
“I was super happy with that,” says Smith.
A week later, Smith returned to the off-road triathlon circuit to compete in the XTERRA Mountain Championships at Beaver Creek on Saturday, July 17.
As is often the case with the local legion of endurance athletes who jump into the triathlon race world, the swim is the hardest part.
That remains the case for Smith. While she had a strong swim personally, covering the mile in the water in 25 minutes, 22 seconds, she came out of the water close to dead last among the pro women.
“There were only two bikes left in the transition area,” says Smith.
But the bike is where Smith shines and she proceeded to pick off her opponents on the 15.5-mile course that is predominately uphill.
“It’s probably 85 -percent uphill and 15 percent downhill,” says Smith.
Smith a time of one hour, 28 minutes and 18 seconds, the second-fastest bike split of all pro women, to move into third place before the final section, a 5.75-mile run.
Again, athletes were sent climbing as the run included its fair share of uphill as well.
“There was a lot of vertical gain,” says Smith. “Between the run and the bike, probably 5,000 feet of vertical gain.”
Smith held her spot through the run, covering the section in 46 minutes and 46 seconds, finishing in third place overall.
She has another XTERRA triathlon in the first week of August before she heads to the East Coast to compete in a World Cup mountain bike race in upstate New York. From there she’ll head over the border for the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Québec on September 4.
