Home > Feature

Weekend recap: Madsen takes silver at XTERRA Argentina, Lori wins ATU African Cup

 

Two Canadian elites had strong showings over the weekend in two exotic race destinations. Michael Lori won the Le Morne ATU Sprint Triathlon African Cup as the sole North American in a diverse international field. Karsten Madsen, one of Canada’s top cross-triathletes, finished second at XTERRA Argentina behind the reigning XTERRA world champ in a stacked elite field.

Madsen earns career best XTERRA finish

12472641_641382236016196_7414951206555239779_n
Photo courtesy of Karsten Madsen.

Karsten Madsen told us back in January that one of his goals for the year was to podium in all his XTERRA races. He’s off to a great start after taking silver behind the reigning XTERRA world champ, Josiah Middaugh, at XTERRA Argentina on Saturday.

“Today was a hard day,” he told TMC after the race. “I swam with the lead group, was fourth out of the water and then had a fast T1 to make it onto the bike first. On the bike I got into a rhythm and rode strong. The bike course was very loose and rocky with some pretty crazy downhill descents. I stayed in the lead for about the first lap of the bike before Josiah Middaugh caught me.”

It was a race of two for the rest of the course as Madsen battle the world champ to the finish line.

“Both of us were way ahead of the rest of the field,” he said. “At the end of the bike Josiah was about two minutes ahead of me. I ran strong on a very demanding 11K run course and at the end I finished about one minute behind Josiah to take second place a career best for myself.”

Madsen’s next race is XTERRA Alabama, another stop on the brand’s Pan Am tour.

Lori wins in Africa

Lori has had strong showings in all of his 2016 races so far. He kicked off the year with a podium finish at an OTU cup in Wollongong. The following weekend he was the top Canadian at the world cup in Mooloolaba, placing top 15 among a stacked field of the world’s fastest male triathletes.

At the ATU African cup, his fast run split of 15:31 was the best of the day and helped push him towards his first victory of the year.

Canada did not have any female triathletes racing on the ITU circuit over the weekend.

Full results here.