XTERRA Advice Sought

Hi everyone,

I’m planning on doing the XTERRA in Temecula, CA on June 1. It’s 1K/26K/10K. It’s my first XTERRA and I have a few questions. Actually I have a multitude, I’m only burdening readers with a few. So hopefully some of you have XTERRA or offroad tri exp. and can help.

Q#1) Pedals w/cages or clips? (Actually I’m asking this in regards to a 5K/20K/5K duathlon held at the same location prior to the actual event so I can get a sneak peak at the terrain)

Q#2) The question time immemorial, wetsuit or not? It gets pretty hella hot in Temecula in June but ya know, THE FLOTATION FACTOR. And I don’t want to rekindle the whole fairness debate. I just want to know if the risk of overheating combined with the add’l transition time resulting from wearing a full body swim buoy is outweighed by time/effort reduction on a 1K swim. Oh yeah, it’s a lake swim and I have no idea what the water temp will be.

Q#3) Related to the wetsuit Q above which would make Q#2 moot (or mute if you’re Joey from “Friends”). Are there wetsuit restrictions in the XTERRA races? I looked high and low for XTERRA race rules but found only the regulations governing qualifying for the Championship (highly unlikely in my case).

Thanks in advance,

John

Clipless pedals offer improved climbing and acceleration but only use them if you’re used to riding with them. If not, stick with the cages.

I’ve found that XTERRA’s typically follow USAT rules with few exceptions (e.g. bike drafting.)