annual Kluane to Chilkat International Bike Relay
Saturday.
"We were amazed this year. With the price of fuel and the border
talking of requiring passports, we figured we’d only have about 1,000 riders.
That’s why we ran out of T-shirts," said race vice-president Judy Ewald of
Haines.
A retired port director who has ridden the relay each year since 1999,
Ewald personifies the recreational end of the race spectrum. The relay is her biggest
athletic effort of the year, she said.
"I think my longest ride before the race was going from Small
Tracts to the cannery and back. I do it because it’s fun and it gets me out on my
bike every spring."
Top solo rider Jeff Oatley, a 38-year-old civil engineer from
Fairbanks, epitomizes the race’s athletic end. Oatley placed sixth overall, part of
his preparation for a 550-mile mountain bike race next month in Colorado. Last year,
Oatley finished a bike race from San Diego to Atlantic City, N.J. in 10 days, pedaling 300
miles a day while getting by on about two hours of sleep per night.
"This is kind of a training race for me but it’s more intense
(than other races). It’s not long enough for the pace to settle down."
Race veteran Kate Boor notches somewhere between Ewald and Oatley. A
former river guide, Boor has entered the race nearly every year, gradually upgrading from
a mountain bike to a $2,000 racing bike and from an eight-person team to a four-woman,
competitive squad.
"I ride a lot now, up to 80 or 90 miles a week training for the
race," said Boor, who is in her 50s and considers bicycling her new life sport. If
she couldn’t put together a team, Boor said she’d join the orphans who show up
the night before the race looking for a squad. "I’m not going to miss it. I love
it."
Josie Nelson, 28, and Katrina Zahnow, 32, each have two children and
their husbands were out working on the ferry. They put together the moms’ team in
part to provide mutual babysitting. The group camped out together in Haines Junction and
had fun riding at the very back of the pack, Zahnow said.
"It was great to get together a group of ladies who normally
wouldn’t have done it. It was never really any trouble at all." The race was an
adventure for the children, and probably a good influence to see their moms making the
ride, she said. "It was a very empowering experience. Now everybody wants to do it
again."
The Rolling Papers, a co-ed team of eight, led Haines squads, finishing
the 148-mile trek from Haines Junction, Y.T. to in 8:48:31. They were led by Karl Nielsen,
a former collegiate bike racer who went 24.6 miles in 1:07.42 on a single-speed bike and
by Greg Schlachter, a former decathlete who finished first among 75 riders in the
mixed-eight division during Leg 8, posting a time of 54:35 on the final 19.1 miles into
Haines.
A two-man team from Whitehorse – Daniel Sessford, age 22, and
Jesse Reams, 19 – won overall, posting a time of 6:19.51. Reams also raced on last
year’s team of four that won. Saturday’s winning time was off last year’s
mark of 6:11.54 and off the 2002 course record of 5:55.55.
Sessford and Reams battled two other two-man teams for the lead during
the second half of the event, breaking away in the final quarter mile to win.
Driving rain and winds south of Chilkat Summit slowed the race, and
competitive riders pedaled into check stations with eyes ringed with grit and road grease.
"There were some raccoon looks out there," said Sue Johnson, race treasurer.
But skies cleared by the race’s end, and the Fort Seward parade
grounds again sprouted a crop of bright-colored tents.
Computerized timing activated by a key carried by riders saved the
event about 35 volunteers previously needed to keep times. "Overall, it was
fabulous," Johnson said.
Participation seemed to increase slightly from last year’s event.
The number of solo riders increased by two and the number of teams – 244 –
decreased by two, compared to last year. Numbers of mixed eight teams increased from 62 to
75, and numbers of riders from Fairbanks also increased. Fairbanks fielded 15 teams,
compared to 38 from Juneau. About two-thirds of participants came from Canada.
The race started in 1993 as part of Dalton Trail Days, a celebration of
the 50
