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Solo Trumps Teams

Geoff Langford / 09.09.2008

After 40-plus kms of mountain biking, trekking, trail running and paddling at the Frontier Adventure Challenge, Sault athlete Jeremy Paquin, racing solo, cruised to the overall win in a time of 5 hours and 22 minutes.

At 10am this past Saturday September 6, 2008, a huge variety of teams gathered at the start line at Searchmont Resort. Racers from Toronto, Waterloo, Wawa, and even Las Vegas made up a field of well-known competitors and amateur local athletes.

Racing as a team of 3 with athletes from Wawa and Toronto, Team Lather. Rinse. Repeat. was the top finishing team, crossing the finish line in 6 hours and 8 minutes.

The Sault area provided a first in the eleven years and over 100 race history of Frontier Adventure Sports – more female competitors than men. Seven all-female teams tackled the race, along with just as many coed teams. Well-known Sault area World Champion Triathlete Sherri Smith captained a team of women to a third place finish in the female category.

“That’s an unprecedented number of female racers,” said Geoff Langford, the race director. “It’s great to see that kind of turnout. We also had four youth teams, providing great representation for the under-20 athletes of this area.”

Team Algoma Bicycle Co, comprised of three under-20 staff of the local bike shop, put in a stellar effort finishing first in the coed division, and fourth overall – despite, ironically, some bike mechanicals and a great wipeout.

“The Searchmont race was so worth the drive to Sault Ste Marie area,” said Adrian Makurat, who came from Oakville to race as a solo. “The course was challenging yet very rewarding – I wasn’t expecting a CP near the top of a 250ft cliff, or paddling / trekking across the awesome rapids of the Goulais River. I really hope Lawrence didn’t exhaust all of his course design options as it truly was a great layout and hope there is some left for more races in the coming years.”