CANADA MAN / WOMAN XTREME TRIATHLON
Extreme Triathlon Arrives in Canada With Todays CandaMan/Woman
Rob Howard / 09.07.2017
The First Canadaman/Woman Extreme Triathlon is about to start in the Megantic region of Quebec, Canada with 120 local and international athletes taking part.
X-tri has grown in recent years, building on the popularity of the legendary Norseman, and this new race is the first of its kind in North America. It joins Celtman (Scotland), Norseman (Norway) and the Swissman race in a new All-Xtri series and is organised by Endurance Aventure who have a long track record of extreme race organisation including Raid International Gaspesie.
The course they’ve set makes the most of a beautiful location in Eastern Quebec, starting with a 3.8km swim in Lac Megantic before a 180km bike ride along the Route des Sommets. This is a tourist tour route to showcase the best of the area’s scenery and includes 2500m of climbing, so it will be both scenic and testing.
The finale is a 42km/1200km climb up Mont Megantic with the finish line at the observatory on the summit. This is the highest point in Quebec and the focal point of the surrounding national park. It’s also a dark sky reserve and the event challenges the racers to ‘race to the summit before midnight.” It will be an iconic and spectacular finish under starlight.
Following yesterdays Sprint triathlon at Lac Megantic the Extreme race starts just before dawn at 4am and as with most new races no-one is quite sure what to expect, or who the favourites might be. Most of the field are local or Canadian and include some very strong and experienced competitors, double Olympian Lyne Bessette among them.
The visiting racers have travelled from Argentina, Mexico, Reunion Isle, Mexico, France, Brazil, the Philippines, Ecuador, USA, Estonia, the UK and Colombia! That’s a very international mix for a first race.
From the UK and representing SleepMonsters/Triathlon Hideaway is Chris Stirling, who recently won Celtman. That was only 3 weeks ago and he will find out how well he has recovered at he attempts an Xtri double at Canadaman. Chris will be reporting for us after the race.
If you’d like to follow what is happening in the race today there is live timing at https://goo.gl/ThpPxr and news will be on the event Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/CAXTRI
For a look at the area try this beautiful video made around the observatory which will be tonight’s finish line - https://www.facebook.com/CAXTRI
Find out all about the race at http://www.caxtri.com
SleepMonsters
