After winning the 2019 edition, Jorik van Egdom (NLD) re-claimed his title during today’s Xterra Ameland. He managed to outrun fellow Dutchman Tristan Olij (+1:21) and Denmark’s Kristoffer Visti Graae (+3:05). In the women’s race, it was Diede Diederiks (NLD) who took her second Xterra win this year. With Czech’s Jindriska Zemanova (+2:56) and Belgium’s Christine Verdonck (+8:06), who finished second and third, the podium was complete.
Men’s race
After the swim, Van Egdom was already in the lead. His gap until the second man – Olij – was only good for four seconds though and that meant it didn’t take too long before Olij was able to catch up with him in the saddle. After 1:24:35 hour of cycling through loose sand, Olij was first to rack his bike. He enjoyed an advantage of approximately 30 seconds to Van Egdom, who was in third position at this point. Graae was in second place in between these two men when entering T2.
A strong run saw Van Egdom take off and go for gold. Van Egdom needed 42:36 minutes to complete the final discipline and claim the title. Olij was able to stay ahead of Graae, as he took silver. Graae settled for bronze.
Women’s race
With a 45-second deficit to the fastest swimmer – Zemanova – Diederiks got out of the water in fifth place. On the bike, she moved up to first place. When entering T2, Diederiks had a buffer of more than one minute to the second woman: Zemanova. While Diederiks extended her lead with a few more minutes on the run – she ran 50:05 minutes over ten km – Zemanova stayed in second place. It was therefor Diederiks who won the event, Zemanova who crossed the line in second place, and Verdonck who took the final podium spot.
