Looking as composed and calm as though he had just stepped off an elevator, Dominic Gillen won the USA Men's Off-road Championship with a time of 2 hours, 8 minutes, and 19 seconds here today to kick off the inaugural National Duathlon Festival, which also features Sunday's USAT Duathlon On-Road National Championships.

"It was a good early season test," said Gillen of the 10K run, 30K bike, 2.5K race which was held in and around downtown Richmond and capitalized on the legendary mountain bike trails in the James River Park System and Richmond's scenic Canal Walk. An XTERRA Pro, Gillen has raced the mountain bike course repeatedly since 2002. This was the first time he had competed in the USAT off-road national championship and his familiarity with the course helped him to his first national championship title.

"I love coming to Richmond," Gillen. "I've got a ton of friends here just from racing. This course gets better and better every year. The guys who have been working on it have been doing a great job."

Gillen, who picked up some blisters on his feet during the final run segment, also plans to race in the on-road national championships on Sunday. "I wanted to be able walk tomorrow," he said. "So I went out to ride smoothly."

In the women's event, Laura Hamm (23) of Blacksburg, VA made her first race win a biggie by also having it be her first national championship title. She completed the 10K run, 30K bike, and 2.5K run in 2 hours, 44 minutes, and 10 seconds. The women ran and biked alongside the men on the same course.

A graduate student in geochemistry at Virginia Tech, Hamm, who smiled through speckling of mud, found the grime and the physical exertion entirely to her liking. "It was lovely," she said. "It's such a beautiful trail and technical course. I had fun the whole time."

With 175 registrants in the junior, youth, sport and age group classes, the Off-Road Championships was a successful first day for the National Duathlon Festival. This is the first year of three consecutive years the National Duathlon Festival will be held in Richmond. And it has been well received.

Pat Dale (46), a fire fighter from Olympia, WA, came to Richmond specifically for a tough mountain bike event, and he was delighted with what he found. "Tough - very tough," said Dale, who finished sixth overall in 2:27:38. "Rolling and punchy with all the roots and rocks. We have technical trails in the mountains near us and this compares to them."

Dale also appreciated the urban locale. "To have high rise apartments so close to the mountain bike trails is awesome," he said. "For us to get to the mountain trails in the Cascades, we have to drive one to two hours."

Sunday's USAT Duathlon National Championships will be contested with a different run and road bike course. Elite pros will race for national championship status and cash prizes, while age group athletes, juniors, and youth races will be going after national titles. There will also be a sport race. The elite and age group course consists of a 10K run, a 40K bike, and a 5K run.

Top Three Finishers

Men's Off-Road National Championships (Overall)
1. Dominic Gillen, 31, Milford, CT - 2:08:19
2. Eric Sorensen, 39, Falls Church, VA - 2:13:33
3. Frank Febbraro, 34, Falls Church, VA - 2:14:31
 	 	 
	 	 
Women's Off-Road National Championships (Overall)
1. Laura Hamm, 24, Blacksburg, VA - 2:44:10
2. Denelle Grant, Charlottesville, VA - 2:51:36
3. Traci Rodosta, Morgantown, WV - 3:09:15

Day Two: USAT Duathlon National Championships

Full results in all classes Off-Road National Championships are posted at www.Duathlonnationals.com.