Four Winds USA Supreme
The North Face (UK) – Supreme Racers
Rob / 19.08.2003
Speaking from race HQ the organiser Bill Lionberger said, “They’ve completed the horse riding and a big hike-a-bike section, but the final Mtb stage is a tough finish to the race. They come down from the mountains and do some riding in the urban area of Park City, then climb up again, 3000 feet over Jupiter Peak before passing through the ski area to the finish line, where we expect them to arrive in 5 or 6 hours.�
Earlier in the race their lead had been as much as 24 hours, over second placed team, ‘Veteran Leader’. They began racing against pairs and teams on the shorter Outdoor Industry Challenge, which covered ‘only’ the first 2 and a half days of the course. For this elite teams had been recruited by various outdoor brands and put up against a TNF team from the USA, composed of their sponsored athletes in different sports, but the teams in the expedition length 4 Winds USA Supreme were racing alongside them.
While most of the teams in for the long haul kept a more measured pace, TNF (UK) were up there with the short course leaders, and when they finished their race, the British team were left out on their own with a big lead.
“The first part of the race was hard,� said Lionberger, “and most teams were hammered in those initial 24/36 hours. There was 33,000 feet of climbing in the first 24 hours, it was so extreme, and also very different. We’ve thrown some things at them that they’ve never done before, and mixed together an urban and a mountain race. So they’ve done inline skating, scootering and urban treasure hunts, which I heard they didn’t enjoy too much as they are used to mountain courses. But they built rafts to cross an alpine lake too, and had a couple of powered parachute flights.\"
\"That was a test for us, but we’ve made aviation history by pulling it off. Ski Sharp was the TNF (UK) pilot and he was thrilled by it. He was grinning from ear to ear and had a good rapport with the instructors.� The first flight was on day 2 and involved dropping a ball onto a target, and the second came later in the race and Ski carried out an exercise to find a ‘crash site’ and drop emergency supplies to the ‘injured pilot’.
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