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X-adventure

"I can't get my feet out of the pedals," gasped racer Kim Christopher, Team Roadkill, after churning out 18 miles (30.5 km) of the first mountain biking section (section A). Between short breaths, Christopher toppled to the pavement, making for a pointed finale to the end of the first leg of her team's inaugural adventure race.

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Christopher and team members Todd Antoniuk, Rob Johnson and Micah McKee are from Boulder, Colorado, and completed section A in 2:46:07 — definitely par for the course. However, Team Roadkill, like other teams with local high-elevation racers, is surely at an advantage here in the red rocks of one of Colorado's most picturesque — and extreme — mountain regions.

While the team ranked 23rd after the mountain biking, Team Roadkill advanced to slot 14 after finishing section B: in-line skating.

The in-line skating course took teams up Aspen's Castle Creek Road, with the elevation nearing 9,186 feet (2800 meters). From there, they faced an eight-mile orienteering section, dropping racers down to a thinning 3,700 feet (1127 meters). Spurts of racers scrambled and panted up the steep pitch while a helicopter whizzed and hovered in the canyon over the checkpoint before section D.

While this may bring this phrase to mind: "If you can't take the altitude, get out of the high country," no one is complaining here. While many racers' bodies were in a physical hell, their minds were in aesthetic and emotional heaven.

When current leaders Salomon Eco-Internet made it to the ropes around 11am, navigator Ian Adamson stopped to greet the staff and onlookers with a huge, "Hey guys, how are ya?!"

At the pre-abseiling checkpoint, Finland's Team X-Act rolled in just 10 seconds before the Spanish Team Red Bull-Playstation. Team Salomon Eco-Internet, fighting for the lead on its home turf, clocked in at 10:59. And off they went, gliding out on suspended cables and descending into the canyon below.

The Buzz
We've also been rooting hard for local Aspenites, Team Intrepid Travelers, but the scuttlebutt is that the team never made it past section A. Unconfirmed reports say racer Chad Denning may have broken his collarbone during one hell of a spill in the first mountain biking section. Transition point lore says that Denning was so pumped for the team's virgin race that he was insisting that the team push through the course, despite some serious pain and what appears to be a major injury for the team.

More on our heroes in the morning.

— Courtesy of Salomon SA

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