Raid the North Extreme
Team Custom Cellular Keep Up the Pressure on the Leaders
Rob Howard / 26.07.2011
Raid the North Extreme is through its first day and the teams have spread out remarkably quickly and over a considerable distance. There is one early withdrawal (Climb4SMA) and Team Blue will presumably be unranked after calling in for navigational help, while at the front of the race Team WildernessTraverse.com raced away from the field in an impressive start to the race.The pre-race favourites (named after the 24 hour event team Captain Bob Millar is the Race Director for) are being chased by other top US/Canadian teams, but closest to them, and less well known, are Team Custom Cellular. (As GearJunkie/Yogaslackers SPOT isn’t working its not clear if they are second or third.)
Custom Cellular appears to be a team pulled together for this race and is one of the more international squads, with Canadian, Australian and Slovakian racers. A little digging into who’s who in this team reveals a wealth of experience.
They are led by Tom Zidek, who settled in Canada with his family having escaped the Czechoslovakian Communist system in 1982 and for 15 years competed in the sport of Biathlon representing Canada and moving onto ultra endurance competition at the Dawson Yukon Gold Rush 1000km re-incarnation race in 1999 (now known as the Yukon Quest), in which he and his partner finished 8th after paddling for 4 days 16 hrs. Trained as an Athletic Therapist his more recent AR CV and roster of 24 hour solo mountain bike races is impressive, including many outings and podium places all over the world with Team SOLE.
His East European and certainly his Biathlon connections no doubt lead to the inclusion of Slovakian racer Dusan Simocko in the team. The 27 year old sports instructor has represented his country internationally and at the Winter Olympics, winning the Gold medal in the 10K Sprint at this year’s Summer Biathlon World Championships in Poland. Just before this race (on July 17th!) he warmed up by finishing 3rd in the Heart of the Rockies Triathlon.
The 3rd male team member is Andrew Fairhurst who is another Canadian Race Director (at Full Moon in June and Sinister7) with a lot of experience, especially within Canada. He has won the Canadian Death Race twice, completed the Trans Rockies and won his class at the 24 Hours of Adrenaline World Solo Championships in 2009. His SleepMonsters profile lists his ‘bugbear’ as ‘sleepmonsters’, so that may be a challenge he has to face later in this race.See All Event Posts
