Sullivan Middaugh proves he’s the real XTERRA deal with World Cup win at Beaver Creek

After winning his first XTERRA USA title last summer, Sullivan Middaugh’s encore performance Saturday proved the 19-year-old Vail product can hang with the world’s very best off-road triathletes — especially when the competition is in his backyard.

“Definitely some home court advantage,” he said after taking down Spain’s three-time world champion Ruben Ruzafa and New Zealander Sam Osborne. Middaugh covered the 750-meter swim, 24-kilometer mountain bike and 9-kilometer trail run in 2 hours, 15 minutes, 33.7 seconds — almost seven minutes faster than last year. Not only was it his second-straight U.S. title, it was also his first XTERRA World Cup victory.

“That will be a motivator going into worlds,” he said, referencing the XTERRA World Championships Sept 21-23 in Trentino, Italy. He pointed to a gradual growth in fitness over the last 13 months to his ridiculous improvement.

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“(I’m) just a little bit better at the longer distances, especially on the bike going into the run,” the Project Podium member said.

Both facets were turning points in the race, with Middaugh waiting until late in the race to strike. It was Osborne and Ironman legend Timothy O’Donnell — making his first XTERRA start — who came out of the water first.

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“Me and TO were hoping to push the swim pretty hard,” Osborne said. Osborne, the 2021 XTERRA Beaver Creek champion, was out of the first transition in 18:43. Middaugh’s Project Podium teammate Keller Norland was 17 seconds back while Middaugh himself left at 20:22. Two seconds later: little brother Porter.

“It was something I definitely focused on this summer, so I was happy with that,” the younger Middaugh stated.

“I knew that they were (about) one minute ahead of us, so we pushed hard the first part of the bike,” Ruzafa said. Middaugh clung to the climber as the pair quickly closed the gap. Osborne called the Spaniard “the best technical rider in XTERRA” and it showed on the first descent.

“He’s pretty creative with his lines,” Osborne said. “There’s not a lot of passing in there, but Ruben always finds a way through.”

For O’Donnell, the first indication that he was a little out of his element arrived when everyone around him started ripping down the singletrack.

“The guys closed on me so quickly. I looked back and there was no one on the climb and then all of a sudden there’s four guys running over me on the descent,” the 42-year-old father of two — with a third on the way — laughed.

“It was amazing. It was such a different beast, but it was humbling to be out there with the best guys in the world and I learned a lot and had a great time … but I quickly realized I was in it for the experience.”

Ruzafa and Middaugh beelined out of the singletrack and remained on their breakneck pacing schedule up the next climb. Osborne sprinted to catch up.

“And I think I entered that next climb a little bit on the redline,” he said. The New Zealander sat in behind and took note of Middaugh’s body language. He may have known right then who the winner would be.

“Ruben — you know his style, he’s always out of the seat attacking,” Osborne said.

“And I saw Sully, and he was just sitting in the seat and bent down, have a drink, and I was like, ‘this dude is actually pretty chill at the moment. I think he’s just sitting here and he’s hoping for a running race.'”

Osborne didn’t have the punch over the next ascent, and it became a two-person contest.

“I wanted to control the pace and the line,” Ruzafa said of his wire-to-wire bike leading.

“Which I was very grateful for,” Middaugh added. “He was pushing it. I tried to help, but he didn’t seem to want it.”

“So, he (Middaugh) tried to be in front a little bit,” Ruzafa said. “But I said, ‘no, no. I go.'”

Ruzafa’s goal was to lose Middaugh on the descents, but he couldn’t shake the youngster.

“I tried to push a lot to (gain) time (on) Sullivan,” he said. “But Sullivan was really strong. He followed me and I knew that the run would decide the race.”

Middaugh bided his time through the next transition and ran with Ruzafa until the aid station at Aspen Glades.

“And then I decided to put down the throttle a little bit,” Middaugh said. “On the run I knew I had pretty good legs. I just treated every hill like my first and my last and pushed as much as I could.”

Climbing the final steps into Beaver Creek Village, the former Battle Mountain star smiled and gave a high-five before stomping across the line. He’d finished the run 46-seconds faster than Obsorne, who admitted to feeling “horrific” on the run.

“But I think that’s just the nature of racing at altitude,” he said. “Sullivan’s obviously a wizard. … You hear lots of different splits and I was like, ‘I just need to suffer like a dog out there. If I’m suffering and somebody catches me, then good on them.”

Ruzafa crossed in 2:17:14.3 and Osborne rounded out the World Cup podium in 2:18:44.0. For the second straight year, second place went to a Middaugh. It wasn’t Josiah, however, as Dad, healing from a broken foot, was forced to ride around the course on an e-bike and cheer.

“Amazing,” said Porter Middaugh after coming in fifth overall and second for the U.S. in a time of 2:23:24.9, 12 minutes faster than his mark from last year and only 83-seconds off of Sullivan’s 2022 winning time. When asked how long it will be until he’s the one pushing his brother, Porter replied, “I don’t know, hopefully as soon as possible. It felt good today, but I think Sully might have even had a better day.”

The Battle Mountain senior competed in two draft-legal road triathlons this summer and said he’s currently not sure if he’ll go all-in on the multi-sport route or focus on running in college.

“Still a couple of options,” he said. “The top ones being either Project Podium or running — still not quite sure, but definitely been focusing on the triathlon so far this year.”

Middaugh was honored to compete against Ruzafa, an athlete he watched duke it out with his dad growing up.

“I respect him a lot,” he said. “I remember probably watching him when I was 10 years old. It was really awesome (to) race with him.”

Both Ruzafa and Osborne have had their fair share of duals with Josiah Middaugh — at XTERRA Beaver Creek and at the XTERRA World Championships — and felt it was pretty special to be racing against his two sons.

“I’m happy for Josiah (and) I’m proud of (Sullivan), because he’s really young and he managed to race really well,” Ruzafa said.

“He’s only probably going to get better as he goes on,” Osborne said of the two-time defending XTERRA Beaver Creek champion.

“He’s probably going to give us headaches in years to come.”