Trioba 24 Hour Series
D.A.R.T. wins the Pacific Northwest Championship
Cyril Jay-Rayon / 20.10.2004
After finishing the third and final race in this year’s grueling Trioba 24-hour Adventure Racing Series, D.A.R.T. won the Pacific Northwest Championship. True to form, the final race held near Leavenworth was another demanding test of a team’s off trail navigational acuity and technical mountain biking skills. The course covered more than 60 miles with a total elevation gain in excess of 10,000 feet - if the teams were fortunate enough to take the fastest routes.
The course’s total distance didn’t reveal the true challenge of the race as most the adventure running involved bushwhacking at night and the mountain biking section was almost entirely on single track with thousands of vertical feet of technical up and down riding. The other sport in the final race involved paddling on lake Wenatchee in cold and windy conditions.
“I was truly amazed by the amount of technical single track riding the final race of the Championship Series had to offer� said Ryan Van Gorder, one of the team’s most skilled riders. “We have become used to a lot of single track riding during the series - something that is almost unheard of in the sport of Adventure Racing - but the final race was just superb.
One section greeted us with more than 4,000 vertical feet of climbing on single track with an unbelievable downhill ride on the other side of the mountain.� Ryan Fleming - a member of the Subaru Primal Quest team - adds, “We are incredibly fortunate to have these races in the Cascades Mountains of Washington where we have an abundance of trails and demanding mountainous terrain. The race organizers have a natural ability to create challenging and spectacular courses. “
“The adventure running section that involved a significant amount of bushwhacking was once again demanding.� says Kimberly Shavender, a veteran on the regional team. “When we started the section we were very suspicious of the apparent short distances. After finding the first few checkpoints, we knew we were in for a long night making our way off trail. We wouldn’t want it any other way.�
Paddle Your Own Canoe
The race started with a unique paddle section where teams had to paddle five 1 mile loops around an island on Lake Wenatchee. The catch was that only one person could paddle at a time while the others waited on the beach. It made for some interesting strategies where some teams opted to change paddlers every loop while others preferred to stay with their best one or two paddlers thus minimizing the time required to change paddlers. After the section, the top 2 Coed teams - D.A.R.T. and Montrail - came out of the water together. See All Event Posts
