Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas (March 24, 2012)
Ben Allen and Renata Bucher made it a clean sweep of the western Pacific by capturing their third XTERRA titles in as many weeks on a blue-sky, cool breeze day at the XTERRA Saipan Championship in the Northern Marianas.
Allen was pushed hard by Olivier Marceau, a three-time Olympian for Switzerland who has won in Saipan four times. Marceau steadily erased the minute-20 gap Allen had coming out of the water by the top of the climb on the bike, then forged into the lead at the notorious cave section just passed the halfway point on the run.
“On that technical downhill section in the ravine I’ve never seen anyone run so fast. Olivier was flying and I was just trying to stay with him, pushing myself beyond my ability just to try and keep up,” said Allen.