The Appalachian Extreme Adventure Race
ATP come ‘out of the woods’ to win Appalachian Extreme
30.05.2004
The Appalachian Extreme was held 21-25 May 2004, and started near Greenville, Maine at 7:30am on Saturday, May 22nd, with a 4½ mile portage. This would prove to just be the beginning of the obstacles to be overcome at this year’s race. Mother Nature decided, unlike the cloudless weather of 2003, that rain would prevail, and racers had to make do with sunless days, and chilly damp nights. SRS from Quebec lead the race the majority of the time, with Odyssey/New Balance, ATP, Yukon/Runningfree.ca, Genesis/Timex, Crested Butte, and Rock N Road Cycles/Hammer Nutrition always racing closely at their heels. The top teams ranking seemed to change at nearly every checkpoint up until the very end of the race.
After the initial portage, teams canoed to the whitewater rafting. Then, they headed out on a 104-mile mountain bike, which took its toll on many. It keep them out all night Saturday, and many well into day 2 of the race. After a long, 58 mile whitewater and flatwater canoe section, it was back on the bikes again for 40 miles to a final trek to the FINISH line.
SRS entered the woods with a commanding 3:25 lead early in the morning on Monday. ATP was next to drop their bikes (CP28) at 10:55am to enter the short, but tricky navigation section back to Sunday River. Odyssey/New Balance was the next 4-person PREMIER category team to begin the trek.
At the next staffed checkpoint, CP31, things started to get interesting. SRS now had only a 30-minute lead on ATP, then at 6:16pm Monday, May 24th, ATP ran across the finish line in 1st place. When asked how they made up so much time on SRS, Scott Pleban, of ATP, shook his head in a bit of disbelief and claimed “we were really motivated and we really wanted to win�.
Race Director Norm Greenberg stated, “ATP’s performance is a perfect example of why you should never give up, and in adventure racing it’s never over until it’s over�. For their efforts ATP won a FREE entry into the World Championship Adventure Race in Newfoundland in August, quite a prize!
SRS finished at 8:43pm, Monday, relieved to be finished but visibly disappointed. The next 4-person team did not finish until Tuesday morning at 4:04am, Rock N Road Cycles/Hammer Nutrition. Crested Butte and SPTU rounded up the top 5 of the 2004 Appalachian Extreme.
The full course they’d completed consisted of whitewater rafting, whitewater and flatwater canoeing, several canoe portages, trekking, and mountain biking, covering a distance of approximately 225 miles. As always, the race provided complicated navigation, and magnificent terrain. Moose were seen by most teams, and many teams admitted seeing other ‘imaginary’ wildlife.
The top finishers shared a value of over $15,000 in cash and product prizes from the following companies; Odyssey Adventure Racing, Montrail, Simon River Sports, LEKI, Deuter, Optic Nerve, Ultimate Directions, Watershed, Princeton Tec, Hammer Nutrition, Adventure Sports Magazine, Rail Riders, and Racing Ahead, Inc.See All Event Posts
