Land Rover G4 Challenge Nevada Passage
Geocaching and Climbing on Day 3
09.05.2008
CATHEDRAL GORGE STATE PARK, Panaca, Nev. – Day three of the Land Rover G4 Challenge Nevada Passage took competitors across the high desert to some rugged mountain biking trails then through a colorful rock wall canyon for a 50-foot vertical climb. Just after sunrise teams caravanned from the campgrounds at Cathedral Gorge along a scenic two hour off-road trek through eastern Nevada’s unspoiled outback to the Chief Mountain Trail Head for the start of a challenging 17-mile mountain bike race on the Gray Dome trail.
The race started with teams scrambling to take their bikes off the roof racks of their Land Rover LR3 competition vehicle. Team Purple – Lisa Lieb and Tom Lyons – was first on the course and the fastest team on two wheels. Both Lieb and Lyons won world mountain bike multi-sport championships last year and were clearly excited to get in the saddle.
At about mile 13 of the bike teams had to stop, pull out their hand held GPS devices and find a treasure. Lieb and Lyons were the first to the checkpoint and took seven minutes to locate the cache hidden some 500-feet away up a ridgeline. Mission accomplished, the pair sailed into the finish line unchallenged in one-hour, 36 minutes.
Team Green – Tim Menoher and Linda Lindsay – started the bike in fifth and moved up to second by the finish. The pair also found the geocache in the fastest time – just five minutes.
Adam Chase and Caroline Colonna of Team Royal Blue were sitting in third at the checkpoint with an opportunity to manoeuvre into second but had a hard time finding the cache and their 12-minute search cost them three spots in the finish order down to 6th place. Laura Home and Phil Glenn of Team Lime Green took advantage of the miscue to finish in third.
Some teams were out of contention before it even started like Team Orange – Sage Grossi and Nate Brown – who had a flat tire on the bike straight off the racks then a series of tire mishaps thereafter. Orange rode under the finish arch a full hour after Lyons and Lieb had won.See All Event Posts
