2011 Xterra World Championship Bike/ Run Course

Please see that the bike section is in blue because both bike and blue start with B and the run section is in red because again both run and red start with R. This is how it will be marked on the actual course race day so racers do not get confused!

START AND SWIM: The race starts with a 1.5-kilometer rough water swim at D.T. Flemings Beach fronting the Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua. Pros are easy to spot with their identifying swim caps - men in blue and women in pink.  A short beach sprint mid-race between two 750-meter laps of a triangular course gives spectators a chance to pick out their friends and family from the field.

BIKE: The bike is one big loop that goes up-and-down the lower slopes of the West Maui Mountains more than a dozen times. “First blush of the bike course shows 18.3 miles with more than 3,000 feet of elevation gain,” said Nicholas.  “The terrain varies from hard-packed red dirt to new single track peeled out of an abandoned golf course that now rides like high speed grassland cross-country trails.  There are major gulch crossings that drop into river beds and head-high vegetation to navigate through. One thing is for certain, to do well riders will need to bring their climbing legs and descending courage.”

RUN:  Once on the run competitors will be faced with 6.1 mile course with a whole lot of climbing while they weave along dirt trails, through Oleander forests, and into 60-foot high ironwood evergreens to an unexpected mountain lake at the 650-foot level.

“It descends like a slalom course through high green Bermuda grasses and opens up in spots to expose fantastic views of the Pacific,” explains Nicholas.  “Obstacles are everywhere, including a technical, steep downhill into a gully where racers will have to jump over and duck under fallen trees, navigate a rocky dry creek, head through thick elephant grass, into a Cook pine nursery, up a short rope-assisted scramble and along a narrow single track trail with switchbacks that drop all the way down to the beach.  The final test of skill and endurance is a calf-busting 250-meter white sand beach run and of course, one-last uphill back to the Ritz.”

FINISH: There’s food booths, the Paul Mitchell cut-a-thon, XTERRA Gear shop, the Kona Brewing Liquid Aloha Lounge, and a front row seat to one of the greatest spectacles in all of sport - the spontaneous, ecstatic, and sometimes tear-jerking displays of emotion at the finish line.

I got all this information off the Xterra Official Website: http://www.xterraplanet.com/maui/worldChamps.html

Please check it out if you would like more details!