Xterra US champs Tahoe

Last weekend was the Xterra US champs. After the world champs in Maui in 3 weeks time, this race has the biggest prize fund in the world. It carries double points for the US series and it must count as a scoring round for that series. Because of that all the US athletes were there, along with pro's from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, Austria, Costa Rica, Mexico and many more countries.

Having done the race last year and suffered with the altitude, I decided to sleep in an altitude tent back in England for 2 weeks and then get 1 week at altitude here. General theory is that you need 3 weeks at proper altitude but this was the best I could do around a full time job!

I certainly felt a lot better than last year come race day, however I was still having big trouble breathing on the bike and run. I had a good swim coming out ahead of 3 times womens world champion Melanie McWaid (who is a good bench mark and was beating me by several minutes last year), I was in the top 25 overall at this point too.

On to the bike and I got in a good rythmn but always felt my legs could go loads faster but my lungs wouldn't let them. I came off the bike in 9th place.

Onto the run and again I felt like I couldn't get going and I lost 2 places to finish 11th and in the money, just!

I am now staying up high for another week, before I go to Maui to get 2 weeks of sunshine before the big day!

Thanks to all sponsors, all products performed faultlessly. Sam