World champ eyes solid Xterra form

WORLD champion Flory Duffy and rising star Mauricio Mendez set out for their first Xterra Off-Road Triathlon race in the country, both confident of performing well in the tough swim-bike-run event that fires off tomorrow in Legazpi City.

“I am really excited to open my 2015 season at Xterra Albay,” said Duffy, who ruled the Xterra World Championship in Maui last year. “I have heard such great things about the race from fellow pros on the circuit and I came to see for myself.”

Duffy prepared in Stellenbosch, South Africa, for the Mayon race  which she said offers a different kind of challenge.

“I hear we are riding up a volcano, so that is something to look forward to,” said Duffy, who will be out to foil Renata Bucher’s back-to-back title bid in the fifth staging of the event organized by Sunrise Events Inc.

Mendez, the 19-year-old fifth placer in last year’s world championship, will compete against the likes of veterans Ben Allen and Bradley Weiss.

“It will be a lot of fun, a fight from the first to the last second of the race for the podium,” said Mendez.

Jacqui Slack, Mieko Carey, Charlie Epperson, Daz Parker, Fabrizio Bartoli and Simone Calamai are also among about 300 triathletes seeing action in the race.

The 1.5K swim leg will be start on the shores of Lidong in Mayon Rivera while the 35K bike stage will be a single-loop point-to-point race passing through fire roads, grasslands, and sand and rocky trails.

The finishing 10K run will follow Mayon’s ATV trail featuring sandy areas, river bed and grasslands.