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DART Montrail Wins Baja Travesia
Matt Hart gives a recap of the race...
December 19, 2005

Pages »1  2

DART Montrail at the finish line...
This was it, the grand finale to an amazing season of adventure racing for Team DART. We were all excited to race, so much so that DART fielded two teams to compete in the five day, 370 kilometer expedition race in Baja Mexico. This season our team had sent at least some semblance of a squad to race in the six Explore California 24-Hour adventure races. These teams had finished on the podium in every race. This meant going into this race, the series finale Baja Travesia, we were leading the race series, with super fast and experienced team Silly Rabbits (Salomon) in second place. So not only were we all racing for the $100,000 in cash prizes but also for the series victory since this expedition race was worth double points towards the overall series— it was all on the line here. Cyril Jay-Rayon, Jen Segger and I would compete for the series win as DART Montrail. Ryan VanGorder, Jen VanGorder and Glenn Rogers would make up our other team as DART Gregory.

Friday Dec 2, 2005 I traveled to Mexico to meet my team at the Century Beach Hotel in Rosarito. This would be the site of the gear check and safety tests. The five- to six-foot surf entries would prove to be a challenge for even experienced teams, with the less experienced teams breaking paddles and kayaks before the race even started. I was beginning to get the idea that this race would be a true adventure. The organizers of the race were Paul Romero and Karen Lundgren, both professional adventure racers from Team Sole. They promised a challenging event that would have teams traverse the peninsula of Baja California—more than 370 kilometers— from the Pacific Ocean to the Sierra Mountains at 10,000 feet and back to the Sea of Cortez.

We got our maps on Sunday but only received half of the Check Points (CP) for the course. Monday, December 5 we awoke at 4 AM for a bus ride to the small fishing town of Los Arbolitos. Starting in the kayaks, we floated there in anticipation of what the next five days had in store for us when Karen's flare shot into the air. We were off! Transition Area 1 (TA1) that was approximately 64 kilometers (40 miles) south. We tried to settle into a good rhythm with me in front setting the pace, Jen in the middle and Cyril in the rear steering our beautiful Northwest Kayak Seascape 3. Team Silly Rabbits was made up of veteran Rick Barraff, professional adventure racer Harold Zundel (team Balance Bar) and National and World Champion rower Emily Durksen (who raced with DART at Primal Quest last year). They quickly pulled out in front. DART Gregory powered by Ryan VanGorder's engine in second and our team following in third. CP1 proved the trickiest because of the three- to four-foot waves that broke right on shore. As we paddled in, Silly Rabbits was still struggling to get out in the surf and had apparently broken their rudder on entry. Cyril pulled up the rudder and we surfed a big wave that ended up turning us backwards. At which point I thought we were dead. Cyril starts yelling, “paddle backwards, we're going in backwards!” This was no time to question Cyril's logic, so we paddle in reverse and had a nice smooth landing on the beach. Getting back out was another story as the boat kept getting smashed and filled with water. After one failed attempt to get through the break we punched through. The highlight of the first kayak section for me was the dolphin escort we received as they decided to swim with us for a few minutes, literally two feet from our boat. It was incredible, and reminded me why I do adventure races and not triathlons or road races.

" Even fully fueled we would not have caught Silly Rabbits, but with the three of us bonking we had no chance."

From there we traded places with DART Gregory as they hammered to catch Silly Rabbits. We had underestimated this section and had run out of food. Even fully fueled we would not have caught Silly Rabbits, but with the three of us bonking we had no chance. We fell into fourth place as the European powerhouse of Nike ACG Endure finished the section in second in just over six hours, with DART Gregory arriving shortly after.

This race was totally unsupported so when we arrived at the TA, we had to put our bikes together ourselves, feed ourselves and prepare everything for the next section. This is the way it should be. Teams gain an unfair advantage sometimes when they can afford to have a large group of people helping them during expedition races. When the race is unsupported it really levels the playing field.

At the TA we put our bikes together, ate and we were off on the 90 kilometer (66 miles) bike section towards the foothills of the Sierra's San Pedro Martir. After the initial maze of roads, we would have very little contact with civilization of any kind since the rest of the race was remote and rugged. DART Gregory left a few minutes before us on their mountain bikes, but we quickly caught up to them. At this point we decided we'd ride together as long as it made sense. As darkness descended on us DART Gregory realized they had planned poorly and only had one high-powered bike light and two hiking headlamps. Cyril, Jen and I all had our Jet Lites so it was good we were with them helping light the way. This quickened their pace, but slowed ours. I didn't mind, however, as the race was just getting started. We now had three navigators, we were in a good position still and, let's be honest, it was fun. As a team we train together all the time, we like each other; we enjoy each other's company. So having Glenn, Jen and Ryan racing with us was awesome. We became a team of six, working together. We arrived about an hour behind Nike ACG and Silly Rabbits and prepared for the next trekking section in the darkness.

Leaving the TA our three navigators charged ahead trying to find the riverbed to lead us up a canyon. A mistake here would be a huge setback and would have taken us out of the race completely. Cyril, Glenn and Ryan navigated it beautifully. Both our teams were comprised of some talented runners, so we know we could close the hour gap on the lead teams if we charged. We soon caught Silly Rabbits and raced with them for the next few hours. At some point the now four navigators decided, three dirt road miles from the TA, to take detour and bushwhack up and over a mountain. This turned out to be the worst idea imaginable, as we got lost in the toughest of unforgiving bush, literally crawling through much of it. We could see another team gaining on us on an illegal road and it quickened our pace. Finally we punched through and hit the road. We had a few miles to run and Silly Rabbits took off. We gathered and ate as we ran. After everyone had eaten we turned it up and passed Silly Rabbits arriving at the TA in second place behind Nike ACG as the sun was coming up on the second day. We had just raced for 24 hours.

This TA was not a good one for the two DART teams. A team arriving behind us had begun bragging about how they had closed such a huge gap on us during the first bike section. I was beside myself, who does that? This was the fuel we needed. Nike was gone already, Silly Rabbits left 50 minutes before we did and Kings left with our two DART teams and quickly disappeared. After a mile or so Ryan told Cyril, “Don't wait for us, go win this fucking thing.” That was the last time we saw DART Gregory. We had a massive bike section in front of us with 3,000 meters (9,842 feet) of climbing in 100 plus degree heat. We started out allright and I was towing Jen at the beginning. It only got worse for us as we started to fall apart a bit, but we never stopped. We heard from a passing car that our other team DART Gregory had decided to lie down and take a nap on the side of the road. This was not an option for us. As Jen and I suffered, Cyril did what he could, towing us on certain sections where we were pushing our bikes. This helped and we somehow gained on Silly Rabbits beating them to the TA. We were now in third place, with the biggest section of the race ahead of us, an 18-28 hour canyoneering section.

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