Raid the North Extreme
On Your Bikes!
Susan McKenzie in Atikokan / 17.08.2003
The race began at 8am sharp. Within minutes, the teams were spread across the terrain, as top cyclists pedaled furiously ahead, while those less experienced chose safety over speed. It’s a technical ride, made all the more challenging by what race director Dave Zietsma calls “the stinking hot weather� – which once again topped thirty on Sunday.
Mountain biking was chosen to start for a reason.
“I wanted to spread the teams out a bit before they hit the trek,� explains Zietsma. “I don’t want people following each other en masse. I want them to feel alone in the wilderness.�
By the first hill, many (if not the majority) were already pushing the bikes and leading the charge were two Canadian teams, Taiga of Ottawa and GearsRacing.com of Toronto. “I was pushed off my bike,� joked Team Spirit’s Dave Hitchon as he pushed his bike up the hill surrounded by like-minded racers. Slow start notwithstanding, Spirit finished the bike leg in second place behind Taiga.
The award for the first flat on the bike leg went to Expedition Canada, who popped a tire after about ten kilometres. Not the first, nor the last. In second place, the Big Fat Camels, had similar problems. “There was this big rock,� said owner of the flat (either Jon or Eric, hard to tell under the dirt, helmet and sunglasses.) “It just went out. Still, changing a flat gives old guys like us a little rest break.� “We’re the oldest and the biggest,� said BFC’s Kris Hansen-Mougeot. “We have enough challenges already!’
Further up the road, other teams were having problems of their own. “We’re lost!� cried Peter Dobos of Persistence at the bottom of yet another dusty descent. In front of them, the Red Rock Raiders were also taking a moment to re-examine their maps. “We were cycling along, and suddenly I realised the sun was in my eyes. I thought, ‘wait a minute, we shouldn’t be heading east,� Red Rock Raider Pat Chan said a few hours later at the Transition Area. “So we stopped, and realised that the road on the map was not the road we were supposed to take. We took a route that wasn’t on the map, and that got us to where we needed to go.�
“We started out just keeping our eyes peeled for a gravel road,� noted Peter Dobos. “What we ended up on was not a gravel road.� Most, if not all, of the teams made the same error. For some, the error made for an additional kilometre or two of biking. For teams such as EADS of France, it meant an extra twelve kilometres in total. “From the front to the back so quickly,� said a frustrated Bruno Rey.
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