As an Xterra specialist, I think about this a lot. Anyone who has done an Xterra knows that the race is as much about soaking up the natural setting and testing yourself against the course as it is testing yourself against other competitors, which is reflected in the more laid-back atmosphere of the events. I think Fleck has this on the nose: this spirit of off-road triathlon is just not consistent with the current spirit of mainstream triathlon in the US.
With that said, I think Xterra is definitely surviving in the US as a whole, even though some (many?) individual races struggle with participation.
I think one reason that offroad triathlon is not seeing big participation numbers in general is that there are a lot of other options with substantially lower barriers to entry. For folks who want competition in epic natural settings, there's straight trail running. For folks who are into "extreme" challenges, new obstacle races are popping up every day. And obviously for folks who want to do triathlons, road triathlon offers what on paper appears to be a similar experience but without needing mtb skills. Mountain biking is decently popular in the US, but nowhere near as popular as road biking, and I think that is something that will be tough to overcome for Xterra.
There are other issues that Xterra faces that may be more straightforward to overcome though, primarily exposure. Longtime pro and triathlon industry media man Jimmy Archer has recently started an offroad triathlon or "dirt tri" magazine in an effort to create more coverage of the sport, and he may chime in on this thread as well with more insight than I have. Xterra recently partnered with a new global marketing firm as well. There is a lot more that could be done in terms of cross-promoting with other races beyond trail runs too, such as partnering with mountain bike races or road triathlons to create "multisport festival" weekends to draw more people and increase exposure for the brand.
Xterra is blowing up in Europe, with Xterra France selling out recently with 1000 entries. Xterra France is an epic course too, with over 1500 *meters* of climbing on the bike and run combined, on an olympic distance course. I think that's just a matter of different culture though, with outdoor sports like mountain biking and cross-country skiing being so much more popular there than here. Xterra is big in South Africa, Australia and other parts of the Asia/Pacific region as well, and again it seems that it's more a matter of Xterra being a better fit with those places' culture of sport than anything else.
I grew up swimming, mountain biking, and running, so Xterra has always been perfect fit for me. I've met a lot of people through the sport who started out as road triathletes, tried one Xterra and got hooked. I'm sure there are some people out there who tried one and never came back, but I haven't met any of those.
Alex Modestou | Elite Off-Road Triathlete
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