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SOLE Takes Early Lead

Susan McKenzie / 02.10.2005

The Sunday church service finished at seven pm, but few people attending the service at the Lajeadinho church were eager to return home.

Earlier in the afternoon, the churchyard had been converted into a transition area, and by seven pm it was crammed with trucks and busses and SUVs, all laden with a week’s worth of adventure racing gear and food. The congregation decided to congregate for a little while longer outside the church, and there were probably a hundred or more people wandering through the TA camp, trying to understand what all these people were doing in their town, on a Sunday night, with bicycles and stoves and camping gear.

It was dark when the first team’s headlights appeared in the distance, the bright LED lights identifying them as racers, and not motorcycles, mopeds or cars. Waiting for that team was a bit like waiting for the lottery numbers to appear: which team was it, and how far ahead were they of the rest of the field?

The team was SOLE, the American/Australian quartet of Travis Macy, Darren Clarke, Karen Lundgren and Paul Romero. More than a dozen photographers and videographers filmed the team’s every movement as it powered through its transition, not stopping to eat or drink and barely taking the time to change.

“We found a little shortcut on the portage,� says Lundgren. “I think we may have picked up some time on there, maybe a lot of time, who knows?�

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