Yanks Win Eco Challenge By 24 Minutes

American team Salomon /Eco Internet has won the 2001 Eco Challenge in New Zealand by just 24 minutes after passing race-long leaders and favourites PureNZ.com on the very last leg.

The American team completed the 225-mile course in an unexpectedly rapid time of four days, 5 hours, 34 minutes and overhauled their Kiwi rivals at 1 a.m on the final leg. "The fast teams up front, New Zealand and the U.S., have made even quicker times than anticipated due to this fine weather and racing without sleep," said Race Director Mark Burnett.

The New Zealanders though, made a serious error by reportedly insisting 'Kiwis don't need sleep' and setting a furious pace. After four days, sleep deprivation set in and there were reports that the Kiwis were having to prevent sleep-walking team mates from toppling off the paths.

By contrast, the American winners slept for two to fours hours a night, just enough to keep their judgement sound. They finally overtook the leaders when they were forced to stop and sleep and, astonishingly, after a short nap, closed the gap on the winners to just 24 minutes at the finish.

You can read full race reports and see pictures of the event on the official Eco Challenge web site.

At the time of writing, top Brits, Team 9feet.com were lying in a creditable 9th position with Team Microsoft/Asite/Maritz including On The Hill's Steve Watkins still plugging away in 42nd place. Remarkably around 60 of the original 67 starters were still involved in the race. Previous events have seen around half the field forced to retire.

Note Adventure racing is, as ever, stupidly hard. For regular monthly race reports and features check the adventure racing section at the back of On The Hill magazine.