November 3, 2008 – Danelle Kabush, Shonny Vanlandingham, Linda Gallo, and Clif Bar co-owner Gary Erickson, headed west last weekend to Maui, Hawaii for the grand finale of the long and highly competitive XTERRA race season; the World Championships. A lot of pride, bragging rights, and a huge amount of cash was on the line for the winner. The LUNA Team dominated the race like no other team has done befrore. Linda Gallo set a new women’s swim course record, Shonny Vanlandingham had the fastest bike, and Danelle Kabush had the fastest run. Their phenomenal times put Danelle in second and Shonny in third. Gary Erickson, racing for Team Clif Bar, finished 9th in his age group. A fantastic result from one of the busiest men in the entire world.

The day started well for LUNA, led out by swim star Linda Gallo who emerged from the water in tandem with the first male pro, as she set a new women’s swim course record and took the early race lead. A few minutes and several places later, Linda’s LUNA teammates Danelle Kabush and Shonny Vanlandingham emerged from the murky depths, mid-pack in the women’s pro field, about 4 minutes adrift of Gallo and eventual winner Julie Dibens of the UK. At this point LUNA’s prospects were not looking great, despite Linda, a new-comer to mountain biking, leading out onto the bike leg.

By the time the bike-run transition took place things had turned around and LUNA’s fortunes were looking up with Shonny coasting into the second transition in second place to record the fastest women’s bike split of the day. Danelle was hot on her heels in third. As they set out on the run, race leader Dibens was six minutes up the trail, and Shonny’s race was in question due to a severe ankle sprain sustained while training the week before. Even two days before the race, Shonny couldn’t walk on her injured ankle. Danelle, a cross-country star at the University of Washington, quickly overcame Shonny on her way to setting the fastest women’s run-split of the day and, unbelievably, closed to within 45 seconds of Dibens with a mile to go! Although this incredible effort didn’t win the race it did put Danelle – a two-time XTERRA Worlds medalist – back on the podium in a big way after having a baby and spending two years away from the sport. Julie Dibens won by over eight minutes last year. This year, with LUNA hot on her heels, her winning margin was only a minute.

Once Danelle crossed the line, all eyes turned toward the finishing straight, the big question in the mind of the LUNA supporters was whether Shonny would be able to fight through the pain in her taped ankle, and maintain third place. She did, crossing the line in third, putting in the grittiest performance of the day by a long shot.

Clif Bar’s Gary Erickson had a solid swim, a fantastic bike, and survived the run to finish 9th in his age group. Knowing that Gary is one of the busiest people in the world makes his result even more impressive.

Linda Gallo’s race report:
“The water was calm, but this was a really tough, fast swim. Lots of great swimmers from around the world showed up for this one (somewhat expected, since it was the World Championships!) The first 400 meters to the turn buoy were super fast, and then it was super rough going around the first turn buoy with a few elbows and a few kicks in the face.

We started to stretch out between the buoys and I moved up to first woman coming out of the first of 2 loops. I vaguely remember a lot of excitement between the two laps before diving into the ocean for my second lap. By this time I had started to warm up and was feeling good. I moved up into the first 3 positions and stayed there through the rest of the swim. On the way out of the water, I bodysurfed my way into second overall out of the water and first woman, AND set a new swim course record time! (old record was from 2000)

As for the bike, well, there were a lot of rocks, everywhere, but the view from the top of the plunge was amazing. But I wasn’t really looking at it, due to the aforementioned lava rocks. The run also had a lot of rocks, and then some sand and a bit more sand.

Overall it was a fun course and a blast to be there with my teammates. Time to embrace the off season!”

Danelle’s Year End Xterra Race Report:
“Two years ago one of the biggest highlights of my life as an athlete occurred with my second place finish at the 2006 Xterra World Championship. However, after training and racing competitively since the age of 12, my goal of starting a family superseeded and put on hold any of my athletic ambitions. While taking 2007 off from racing, I continued to train while pregnant to keep the door open to a return to racing.

One year ago I was taking my first post-baby Zoé mountain bike ride with my husband J-F around the trails of Canmore. I was so excited to zip around minus the 20lb baby belly that he could hardly keep up! Then I got the dream offer to sign with the LUNA Women’s Mountain Bike team for XTERRA. I was highly motivated with the goal of being in good enough shape to race the first National Mountain Bike Series event at the end of March, while also a little anxious about how I would balance it all with baby Zoé, but certainly up for the extra challenge!

Coming back to training and racing with a baby hasn’t been easy and isn’t for everyone, but I have loved every exciting minute of it! I can probably still count on my hands the number of full nights sleep I’ve had in the past year, but I’ve also been amazed at how my body can still train and perform while not on an ideal athlete schedule.

And this past Sunday made it all worth it! I had the race of my life on a bright, sunny, and hot day in Maui when it counted the most, and came up less than one minute short of the World Championship title for 2nd place behind the defending 2007 champion, Julie Dibens. After a good swim in the rough and tumble pack of salty bubbles, I found my climbing legs pretty quickly on the bike and worked hard to get through all the traffic and push my own pace. I was surprised to see Melanie McQuaid (who had an off-day with stomach issues) and other top contenders like Renata Bucher so quickly. Halfway through the bike I found myself in second place and kept it rolling over the rough grass, dirt and lava rock. My teammate Shonny caught me with about 3-4 miles to go on the 19 mile bike course and told me to get on her wheel. We rode together until the last few down hills where she got a little bit ahead. After posting the fastest run split the last three XTERRAs I was on a mission to do it again! Passing Shonny back up on the road I crossed my fingers that her ankle would be okay (she finished with an amazing race on a badly sprained ankle and held on for third by only 17 seconds in front of Renata Bucher of Switzerland! Jenny Smith of New Zealand rounded out the podium in 5th). Meanwhile, Julie had a 5-6 minute lead on me at the start of the run. I was feeling great and ran as quick as I could. I got a few splits that I was closing and amazed to hear someone shout out only 45sec with about 800m to go! But unfortunately there wasn’t enough trail left. So I grabbed a Canadian flag for the finish shoot and smiled and high fived my way to the line!

On top of the amazing support from Team LUNA and local Canmore sponsor, Devonian Properties, I couldn’t have done it without some key support on the home front! First, my husband J-F has been amazingly supportive and helping me to do my training around his busy work schedule, while also managing to train himself for the Solo 24hrs of Adrenaline this past July in Canmore! He has also traveled to every XTERRA race with Zoé and I. I should also thank “Go with the flow Zo” for being such a happy traveler! Since three months old she has flown with me once or twice a month! Some of those plane rides have been out to the grandparents in Courtenay, B.C. My parents’ support has been critical as well in allowing me to get some training done out on the mild coast during the winter and for coming along to the early season training camp and races! Finally my coach, Cal Zaryski, has been instrumental in helping me get back to racing form! As a highly educated coach, and world-class triathlete and his age group XTERRA World Champion in 2006 (and 2nd in ’07 and’08), he has been critical in helping with a training plan that has respected my other work commitments and life as a mom. Quality versus quantity defines my training this past year!

Thanks again to LUNA team manager Waldek and team mechanic Chris, for all the support in Maui and getting my body and bike as ready to go and as stress-free on the start line as possible! It was a fun LUNA team weekend with Gary Erickson ripping over the lava rock in his first Maui XTERRA and Dave and Phoebe over to cheer us on as well. We also enjoyed the best splits again with Linda kicking everyone’s butt in the swim, Shonny setting the fastest bike split for the third year in a row, and myself with the fastest run split.

Now its time for a few days on the beach with the family for a few days of R & R before back to Calgary. Thanks for reading!”

Gary Erickson’s race report:
“The last several weeks have been one adventure after another. Starting with XTERRA Nevada, which you all read about a few weeks ago. The day after suffering up and down the mountains behind Incline Village, I began a 7 day bike journey in the Sierra Nevada with my lifelong buddy Jay. The ride was in the style I call “White Road” traveling (read my book Raising the Bar: Chapter 4). Essentially, white road travel is light weight, no support, lots of miles, lots of climbing and lots of adventure. Oh, and lots of eating! Jay and I completed our first white road trip in 1986 starting in Lucerne, Switzerland and ending in Innsbruck, Austria 15 days later. Over the years we continued to do trip after trip in the Alps, Dolomites and Pyrenees, but this year we needed to stay close to home due to our schedules, family and work. I birthed Clif Bar a few years after our first trip in the Alps. Jay has since became an ER doctor, and both of us married and started families; life became more complicated. We still managed to do several trips in Europe, but this year was different.

This year’s tour started from Jay’s house in Meadow Vista, near Auburn, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. As usual, we carried only the bare necessities, and had no support. We road south across the ups and downs of the foothills and then over Sonora Pass (insert Sonora Pass Photo) , to the east side of the Sierra, over Tioga Pass at nearly 10,000 ft, through Yosemite, and finished the last three days riding through the Gold Country staying in Hotels over 150 year old. We talked to so many people who loved and inspired us, and enjoyed incredible food and wine from the wonderful and beautiful wine country of Amador and Sonora County. All in all we were thrilled to have such great cycling so close to home. The Sierra Nevada is some of the best cycling we’ve ever done and in many ways is just like riding in the Alps or Dolomites.

Just so you all know, Jay is the buddy who was with me when I had the original idea, or epiphany, to invent Clif Bar back in 1990 (read back of the Clif Bar package). We are so thankful to be able to have these adventures as part of our lives, and our hope is to continue doing this well into our 80’s .

XTERRA Worlds, Maui

A few weeks after the Sierra trip, Kit (my wife and co-owner of Clif Bar), and I took a vacation to Maui. As part of that vacation I raced the XTERRA World Championships. I’ve only raced two other XTERRA events before Worlds, and got in on a “at large” entry (whatever that means). I wasn’t expecting too much as in “performance”. I wasn’t too keyed up for the race as Kit and I needed a break from our day to day lives. We played a lot each day before the race, but on race day, the game face came on and standing with my feet in the water, helicopter buzzing over head, 525 people lined up on the beach aiming for the first buoy, waves staring to crash in on the shore, I started to panic. I am a scared and weak swimmer. Getting to the first turn was a fight and I was hoping for an “out” (like a boat to take me sailing), but focused on just breathing. After making the left turn to the next buoy I calmed down and made it through the swim, slow but safe. Kit was worried as usual, but had the camera ready for my exit out of the water.

On to the bike; there was lots of catching up to do. The problem with a slow swim, especially in an XTERRA, is having to pass all those people that out swam you, but aren’t very good on the mountain bike. Even with a wide trail, there is only one good lane. I came across dozens of riders packed up and had to sprint around them on the loose part of the trail, recover, and then catch the next group. The fun part was hearing things like, “go old man,” being that I am in the 50-54 age group and passing many athletes much younger than myself (our age is printed on our calves). Still I was way behind the leaders of my age group and was hoping to just hang in there and finish in some kind of style and not embarrass the LUNA Chix racers, Danelle, Shonny and Linda. They are the real heroes in our lives, Linda was the fastest swimmer, Shonny the fastest cyclist, and Danelle the fastest runner. What a show for LUNA!

The run was just a suffer fest and did my best to not walk. By the end I had nothing left and was happy to see the finish line. I was thrilled given my busy schedule and lack of full time training to finish in 225th place out of 525 participants, and 9th in my age group. XTERRA is an amazing sport and Worlds is so exciting. I appreciate all the people who participate, but especially all the people who make this event become a reality.

Congratulations Gary! Thanks Kit for all your support!

Lastly, at the end of the year, I want to say how proud Kit and I are for this wonderful team, Team LUNA Chix; the Mountain Bike, XTERRA and Triathlon athletes. We are honored to have such wonderful people on our team and such high performers. As well, the support staff is the best in the business. And least but not least, thank you to all of our sponsors. I have the luxury of experiencing all of the equipment and gear, and it is the best of the best. Thanks to all of you for making the LUNA program the best in the world.

Best Always, Gary

Breaking News!!!!
This just in from Europe! Katerina Nash had a brillant ride at the European Cyclcross Championships in Liévin, France, placing 3rd, only 13 seconds behind the winner, Hanka Kupfernagel (Germany). No other details at this time. More to follow later this week.