Courtesy: Xterra

In what has become a familiar scene at XTERRA Championship events in the last year, overall winner Conrad Stoltz slowed to a jog as he crossed the finish line at the Nissan Xterra USA Championship race in Lake Tahoe, Nevada today.

The 28-year-old from Stellenbosch, South Africa could afford as much, having put more than six-minutes between himself and runner-up Mike Vine of Canada during the 1.5-kilometer swim in Lake Tahoe, the 32-kilometer mountain bike that climbed 2,500 feet along the Sierra Nevada mountain range, and the 10- kilometer trail run that traversed forest trails around the Lake.

The victory marks the Sydney Olympians sixth straight XTERRA victory and his second consecutive win at the national championship race. His winning time of 2:36:38 was 6:16 better than Vine (2:42:54) and was the fifth time in six races he's came across more than two-minutes ahead of the nearest competition.

It also wrapped-up Stoltz' second straight Nissan Xterra Pro Points Series Championship and the $10,000 check that goes with it. Add another $4,400 for the race title and Stoltz can take some time to rest before the Nissan Xterra World Championship on October 27th in Maui.

"Fourteen thousand and four-hundred dollars is a great payday for me and it will go along way back in South Africa," said Stoltz, who is also the reigning XTERRA World Champion. "I had my best race of the season today on an incredibly tough course. The climb was on sandy trails and throughout the bike course you can't see behind you so you're never sure where you stand."

Stoltz stood in front almost the entire race. After exiting the water in third, 20-seconds behind Kerry Classen and Marcel Vifian, he chased the pair down two miles into the bike course at the beginning of the climb. From there he came out of the bike-to-run transition with a four-and-a-half minute cushion that he padded on the run.

Once again he didn't have the fastest swim, bike, or run split - but strung together the third-best swim, with the second-best bike (behind the legendary Ned Overend), and the fourth-best run for another brilliantly balanced attack.

"He's as dominant now as any XTERRA racer since Michael Tobin won seven straight to open the 1999 tour," said race director David Nicholas. "It looks like no one can beat him unless he has a mechanical, but never count out some of the up-and-comers like Dominic Gillen and his cousin Tyler Johnson - and Mike Vine is starting to hit his stride too."

Vine, who has posted wins at XTERRA UK and XTERRA Saipan this year, had an incredible race today in this his seventh straight weekend of competition. His standout performance moved him up to fourth place in the series standings.

The legendary Ned Overend, at 47-years-old, posted the fastest bike split (1:35:34) and placed third overall to become the Nissan Xterra USA Champion (always given to the top American finisher). Last year Overend won the Pro Points Series overall, but coming into this race his best finish was the fifth-spot at Keystone in July.

"Being third is great in this field," said the 1998 and 1999 XTERRA World Champion. "I'm real pleased because everything went very smoothly, no mistakes. I had a good ride following Nico (Nicolas LeBrun) up the hill because he was hammering the climb. There are a lot of great athletes out here, especially with the kind of runs these guys put up. Luckily this course was more of a power run with lots of corners and loose surfaces because those young guys like Tyler Johnson can pull away a lot more on straight-aways."

Following up on his third-place finish at Half Moon Bay last month was Tyler Johnson, the youngest pro in the field at just 22-years-old. He posted the fastest run-split (by more than a minute) for the second straight race but still finds himself in awe of Overend.

"Ned is legendary. He was my hero growing up mountain biking and I had his pictures all over my wall. I'm not even in the same class," said Johnson. "He shook my hand and I'm not sure if I'll wash it."

Right behind Tyler was his cousin Dominic Gillen (both natives of Connecticut) in fifth place. The ever-consistent Kerry Classen posted the fastest swim and accrued enough points to finish third overall in the points series.

Nicolas LeBrun, the leading challenger to Stoltz heading into the race, flatted twice on the bike course but still managed to gather enough points to place second in the points series for the second year-in-a-row.

Marcel Vifian, who has won five of the 10 road triathlon's he's entered this year, came out with Classen on the swim and would've exited the bike-to-run transition in the top 10 but both legs cramped up just shy of the transition after a run-in with a few stiff branches caused him to crash.

In the women's race Jamie Whitmore solidified her dream season with her third XTERRA title of the year and the big payday with the Pro Points Series and national title payoff.

After crossing the finish line Whitmore's first words were, "I just want to tell the credit card company's out there that my balance is going to zero."

The Sacramento, California native certainly left zero doubt about who the best women rider on tour was this season. Whitmore came out of the water in seventh place and passed everyone but Melanie McQuaid by the top of the bike course.

"Once I caught up to Melanie I sat on her tail for a while because there's not to many opportunities to pass on the Tahoe Rim Trail," said Whitmore. "Once I saw some space, just before the descent, I went as fast as I could and never looked back."

McQuaid gave it everything she had to that point but a few days of feeling under the weather left her without a bank of energy.

"I was totally depleted by the time Jamie passed me so when she did I really had nothing in my tank to chase her with," said McQuaid.

The Canadian still hung on to second place in the points series standings, a big jump from last year's sixth place overall finish.

XTERRA Australia Champion Raeleigh Tennant once again posted the fastest swim split to get an early led. After dropping several spots on the bike Tennant entered the run in sixth place but swiftly made up ground on the field in front of her to finish in the runner-up spot in Tahoe for the second straight year.

"I know I'm not a great climber on the bike so I really conserved my energy there and was able to make up the difference on the run," said Tennant.

Tennant's performance helped her to jump past Melissa Thomas, Anke Erlank, and Kerstin Weule in the Points Series to finish in third.

Candy Angle posted her best XTERRA finish ever to place third. McQuaid followed in fourth and Melissa Thomas continues to impress as she finished fifth.