Men's elite winner Marshall Greene bikes down Century Drive.

After Mike Kloser crossed the finish line of Saturday’s Pole Pedal Paddle, looking defeated but still cheerful, he immediately found Marshall Greene standing nearby.

”Marshall, you pretty much put it to us on everything,” Kloser said.

Indeed, there was no catching Greene, who had a 40-second lead after the 8-kilometer cross-country ski stage and powered down Century Drive on his bike to gain a three-minute lead on Kloser after the 22-mile cycling stage.

He maintained that lead on the run, paddle and sprint legs, and now Greene is the reigning PPP champion after finishing second to Jan Spurkland last year. Greene smiled and raised his arms as he crossed the finish line at Bend’s Les Schwab Amphitheater.

The two-year Bend resident finished in 1 hour, 43 minutes, 58 seconds, the fastest individual time since Ben Husaby won the 2002 PPP in 1:43:34. Kloser, of Vail, Colo., was second in 1:48:14, and Andy Fecteau of Bend finished third in 1:50:22.

Kevin Grove of Bend took fourth (1:50:57), and Dan Weiland of Vail was fifth (1:52:01).

”It wasn’t until the boat turnaround that I felt like I was going to win,” Greene said. ”I just tried to go as hard as I could on the cross-country ski. I knew with Kloser behind me, it would be a matter of getting the lead and trying to hold it. I trained a lot more for the bike this year as opposed to last year, and I think that was the difference.”

Greene said he was concerned about Kloser catching him during the 8-kilometer run on Century Drive and the Deschutes River Trail, but he actually gained more time on the run stage.

”I got schooled today,” Kloser said. ”Marshall took us on. He skied, biked and ran away from us. At the halfway point of the run, he had put time on us again. I said, ‘I have to step it up, I don’t care how bad it hurts.’ But it was a race for second at that point.”

Marshall, 24, said he was worried when he found out that the 46-year-old Kloser was going to race in his first PPP. Kloser, who said he first heard about the PPP a month ago, is a three-time world champion in adventure racing with Team Nike and a former world champion mountain biker. He also is an eight-time winner of the Steamboat Pentathlon – a race similar to the PPP but with a snowshoe stage instead of a paddle.

”He’s one of the best adventure racers in the world,” Greene said. ”I knew he’d be steady. I was definitely a little worried. But this race is definitely easier for locals, being able to know the course and having done it before.”

The elite division of individual racers, which included 26 men and 11 women, was the first wave to start at Mount Bachelor, where the competitors sprinted to their skis near Pine Marten Lodge and then skied down the Leeway run.

Tav Streit of Park City, Utah, was the first athlete down the hill, with Greene and Colin Mahood of Bend not far behind. They quickly pulled off their alpine boots, with their nordic boots already on underneath, as they started the cross-country stage down a long hill.

When the competitors emerged from the trees at the end of the cross-country stage across the Mt. Bachelor ski area parking lot near the nordic center, Greene had a 40-second lead on a pack of skiers that included Streit, Weiland, Kloser, Jason Lemieux of Hood River, and Bend residents Josh Smullin and Tim Woodbury.

Greene quickly widened the gap on his bike, breaking out to a huge lead on Kloser and Woodbury, who were closest to Greene during the start of the cycling stage.

By the time Greene reached the bike/run transition on Columbia Street and Colorado Avenue in Bend, he had a three-minute lead on Kloser and Woodbury. Five minutes behind Greene at the bike/run transition were Fecteau, Lemieux, Weiland and Grove.

As the competitors ran up Century Drive and back down the river trail during the run, Greene gained more time, and he had a lead of nearly five minutes by the time he reached the run/boat transition on the bank of the Deschutes River across from Farewell Bend Park. Kloser remained in second at the transition, and Weiland was in third, Grove in fourth.

Fecteau was in fifth place as he got into his boat, but he made his move on the paddle stretch, passing both Weiland and Grove on the Deschutes to finish third for the second straight year.

Fecteau, 40, has finished second six times in the PPP, and he said he struggled with his decision on whether to compete this year because the past two years he felt too much pressure. He said he did not decide to race until Thursday night.

”Last year was crazy, with the exposure and the stress,” Fecteau said. ”It felt like the Olympics last year. But the reason I decided to race this year is (that) no one ever told me to stop trying. When I was younger, I gave up on a lot of things – I don’t want to give up on this. I’m definitely passionate about this race. This year it was fun again. The last two years I did not have fun.”

And this year Fecteau said he was somewhat satisfied with third place, knowing that no one was going to catch Greene.

”That was one of the better efforts I’ve seen in this race in 11 years,” Fecteau said, referring to Greene.

Grove, the fourth-place finisher, was also pleased with his race, in what he called a deep, competitive field of athletes.

”I felt like I was there the whole race,” said Grove, 33. ”I finished the cross-country leg really strong and stayed even in the bike and made up time on the run leg. It was a really fun race, with a deeper field than in the past. It was more of a race – there was more mixing it up.

”But Marshall was kind of in a league of his own today.”

Mark Morical can be reached at 383-0318 or at mmorical@bendbulletin.com.