DANAO, Cebu primes up for another grueling staging of what has long been considered as the toughest endurance event – the Xterra Off-Road Triathlon Asia-Pacific Championship, which fires off April 22.
Host of a number of international mountain bike events in recent years, Danao put up a successful first-ever hosting of Xterra last year that saw South African Bradley Weiss and Carina Wasle of Austria top their respective sides in the challenging 1.5K swim, 28K bike on fireroads and rocky terrain, and 8K trail run with the city’s scenic mountain ranges as backdrop.
Danao, which offers a challenging course that tests not only the field’s stamina and power but also their mental toughness, will stage the Xterra until 2019 in line with the three-year contract signed by city officials with the organizing Sunrise Events, Inc.
Registration is going. For details, visit www.danao.xterraphil.com or at facebook and twitter xterrasouthph.
Aside from the full Xterra (individual and relay), also on tap are competitions in the Lite (individual and relay), a 750m swim-14km mountain bike-4km trail run, and the duathlon (individual), a 2km trail run-14km mountain bike-4km trail run event.
The event, presented by the Province of Cebu and the City of Danao, is backed by venue hosts Coco Palms Beach Resort and Cebu Technological U, and 2Go Express, David’s Salon, Intercare, Motor Ace, Hyper on Cignal, The Philippine Star, AlcoPlus, DeVant, Sanicare and Storck.
The swim leg starts and end at Coco Palm Beach Resort with triathletes swimming on a counter-clockwise rectangular course that traverses the perimeter of the beach area.
For the bike, competitors ride on a two-loop course starting with barangay road leading to a higher elevation. They can expect to encounter several punishing climbs as they go deeper into the course before entering fireroads and then rocky terrain.
They have to pedal on numerous single track with varying vegetation in the area, as well fast downhill sections and some technical flat portions in the course.
For the closing run leg, participants have to go on a gradual climb in grass open areas leading to portions with lots of loose rocks. The one-loop course takes them to a single track and narrow lanes before bringing them back to the finish line at Cebu Technological University.