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Snowbasin • Spain's Ruben Ruzafa and Bermuda's Flora Duffy captured the 2014 XTERRA USA Championship off-road triathlon at Snowbasin Resort Saturday.
Ruzafa, 25, the current and two-time XTERRA World Champion, finished in 2:21:47, less than a minute ahead of runner-up and 2012 USA Champ Josiah Middaugh of Colorado (2:22:32).
The difference was the bike, where Ruzafa — a former world cup mountain biker — posted the fastest split of the day in 1:18:01. Middaugh had the second-best bike time of 1:20:00.
"It was tough. I couldn't stay with him on the bike," Middaugh said. "I needed to match him but he doesn't have any weakness on the bike. You give him 10 seconds and it blows up to a minute real fast."
Middaugh still won the XTERRA U.S. Pro Series for the second straight year and was the XTERRA National Champ (top American) for the 10th time.
For Ruzafa, it's his eighth straight win of the 2014 season (he won seven straight in Europe to capture the XTERRA European Tour Championship and also won the ITU Cross Triathlon World Championship).
The last time he didn't win was here in Utah last year, when he was third behind Leo Chacon of Costa Rica and Middaugh.
"This race was important to me because last year was really hard," Ruzafa said. "I wanted to come back and do well here and happy that I did. I came here two weeks early and studied the bike course, memorized all the turns so I could go as fast as I could. I really like Utah, the people and the mountain."
Mauricio Mendez, 18, of Mexico City finished third, with South Africans Bradley Weiss and Dan Hugo taking fourth and fifth, respectively.
In her first full season racing XTERRA. the 27-year-old Duffy has been dominant. She won all three regional championships and now Nationals.
She posted the fastest swim (coming out of the water third overall behind only Ben Allen and Mauricio Mendez), had the fastest bike split among women (1:32:36) and the second-best run behind eventual runner-up Barbara Riveros from Chile to win in 2:38:18 — more than six minutes in front of Riveros.
"It was a lot of fun, but it was hard. I never felt particularly stressed with my breathing but my legs were shot," said Duffy, a two-time Olympian.
Emma Garrard of Park City finished fourth and clinched the second spot in the overall XTERRA U.S. Pro Series standings.