Arthur Serrieres from France and Lesley Paterson from Scotland captured the seventh annual XTERRA Greece off-road triathlon elite titles, with winning times of 2:14:40 and 2:40:26 respectively, on Sunday, April 21, 2019, in Vouliagmeni.
It was Serrieres’ third victory in an XTERRA event and his first for the season, and a successful season opener for Paterson, the reigning and three-time XTERRA World Champion.
An exciting and unpredictable elite men’s swim race, found Mathurin Boutte from Team Tvert coming out of the water at first place and Max Sasserath in second, followed by Serrieres, Forissier, Carloni and Luxem. Coddens and Wychera were just a breath behind them.
It took only a few kilometers on the bike for Arthures, Carloni, Sasserath and Luxem to work together, with Arthures and Luxem creating a small gap between them and the rest of the group during the last stretch of the bike.
During the second loop of the run, Serrieres opened the gap and secured his victory. Forissier finished second and Luxem came in third.
Charlotte Deldaele was the first woman out of the water, with a significant lead on Carina Wasle, who was able to come out second, in front of Lesley Paterson, leaving -not far behind- Karaskova-Erbenova, Ana Tomica and Maud Golsteyn.
Much like in the men’s race, Paterson closed the gap during the bike and took over Wasle, who had an unfortunate crash early during the bike race. It was not long before the end of the first loop, that Paterson was already taking the lead, with Herbenova-Karaskova, who had the best bike split of the day, in second.
The finish line found Paterson taking the victory, Elena in second and the new-in-XTERRA but much promising Deldaele in third.
All-Time XTERRA Greece Elite Champions
Year Men Women
2013 Ben Allen Elena Herbenova-Karaskova
2014 Francois Carloni Kathrin Mueller
2015 Kris Coddens Elena Herbenova-Karaskova
2016 Roger Serrano Elena Herbenova-Karaskova
2017 Ruben Ruzafa Elena Herbenova-Karaskova
2018 Arthur Forissier Nicole Walters
2019 Arthur Serrieres Lesley Paterson
XTERRA Greece was the second of the fourteen 2019 XTERRA European Tour races, offering up to $7,500 USD and 75-point scale scoring towards elite and amateur Tour standings, plus 26 qualifying spots for age groupers vying to race at XTERRA Worlds. Elite athletes count their best eight scores of 14 events to determine the Tour champs. Full details can be found at xterraplanet.com.
Next up on the XTERRA European Tour: XTERRA Malta, May 18.
