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Duffy returns to winning ways

Riding hard: Duffy lead from the start in Colorado

Flora Duffy’s dominance in Xterra triathlon continued in Colorado yesterday.

A week after her bronze-medal display on the road in Toronto, Duffy proved she’s just as strong on a mountain bike and trails at the Xterra Mountain Championship in Beaver Creek.

The 27-year-old had the fastest swim, bike, and run to take the tape in 2hr 22min 41sec, more than six-minutes ahead of runner-up Emma Garrard.

Duffy certainly enjoys the discipline, even if it was hard work.

“Racing at high altitude is hard! So great to be back on the mountain bike & even pull off the win!” she tweeted afterwards.

The victory was Duffy’s eleventh Xterra win in her last 12 starts since the start of the 2014 season.

Behind Duffy, Emma Garrard was having a great day of her own. She posted the third-best swim, got ahead of Sara McLarty early on the bike and had the second-fastest ride and run times to finish in 2:28:43, nearly six-minutes ahead of Sara Schuler.

It’s Garrard’s fifth straight runner-up finish this year and she’s now placed second at all eight regional championship races over the past two seasons.

Schuler ran her way into third, Jaime Brede had a career-best day to finish fourth, and last month’s Xterra East Champion Suzie Snyder finished fifth.

* Tyler Smith finished tenth at the Châteauroux ETU Triathlon Junior European Cup yesterday.

Smith’s time of 58:49 was two minutes behind that of winner Matthew Roberts of Australia, but little more than 30 seconds away from Daniel Bækkegård, from Denmark, who finished third in 58:15.