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X-adventure

The leading teams finished just before midnight, some 18 hours after the start of a race that encompassed five different disciplines and covered almost 160 kilometers. The teams camped overnight near Basalt, at the east end of the Reudi Reservoir and pushed off in canoes this morning at 5:30am.

Salomon Eco-Internet led after the first stage of the race, a steep bike climb up Castle Creek Road, and by the end of the day had maintained its edge over Salomon Extrem and X-Act, two of the top teams in the Salomon X-adventure World Cup series. Salomon Extrem won the first race of the series last month in France and Spain, and X-Act won the second race in Austria/Germany earlier this month.

The race concluded early this afternoon when the teams will mount horses for a sprint up Owl Creek Road to the finish at Snowmass Village. In addition to this final section, teams will have to canoe, trek, mountain bike, in-line skate and survive a rope section. The leading teams are expected to arrive at Snowmass around 2pm.

"We had a tremendous first day of the race, and the course has provided some of the best X-adventure teams in the world with a great challenge," said Barry Siff, of MountainQuest Adventures, the race organizer. "This is the first X-adventure race in the United States, and with seven of the top-10 teams in the world competing, we couldn't have asked for a better beginning."

One of the leading teams, Red Bull-Playstation of Spain, was forced to withdraw when one of the team members fell off their bike and injured an arm on a steep descent of Ajax Mountain. Red Bull finished 2nd in the last Eco-Challenge and team members said they will be able to race at Eco-Challenge in three weeks.

— Courtesy of Salomon SA

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