But from among the blistery mess has emerged a colorful alliance. Keith Byrne and Steve Watkins, formerly of Team The North Face (UK) [go to Team Bio], have teamed up with Michael Eck and Dave Christian of Team Go (USA) [go to Team Bio], forming an Anglo-American squad that is determined to finish the Eco-Challenge Sabah 2000 as a foursome.

"We've got a very good chance of being the first Anglo-American team to cross the finish line," said Watkins, a 34-year-old British photographer and writer. "We've also got a very good chance of being the first all-male team to cross the finish line. So we're going to win this thing."

Of course, official Eco-Challenge rules require teams to be of one nationality and to have at least one female member.

These Boston Tea Party revisionists have already cleverly renamed their rebuilt team "USUK," prompting chants of "You suck! You suck!" among local onlookers. Even Eco-Challenge radio dispatchers and PC volunteers have taken to calling the humorous foursome by their newly coined team name.

"We're bridge builders," joked Christian, 29, a former U.S. Army Infantry paratrooper.

Team The North Face suffered their second loss only a few kilometers into the jungle trek, when 27-year-old editor Steve Duffy injured his ankle. Teammate Naomi Spina had already been airlifted from the course with a torn ACL. "We're double DQ'd," said Byrne, a part-time stunt model who once cycled from New York to Argentina.

The decision to continue had not been an easy one for Byrne and Watkins, who were stranded at PC 14 as a duo when Duffy went down. "You need to have your head right to go out and do these things, even if you've been disqualified," said Watkins. But a heart-felt conversation with a photographer covering the event, eventually convinced them to go on. "I've come a long way to be here," he said.

Set to make the PC 14 cutoff that had disqualified so many others, Team Go lost teammate Erik Resurreccion when he crashed his mountain bike near the end of the leg, cracking his helmet and suffering a mild concussion. Teammate Penny Miller dropped out soon afterwards, citing physical and mental exhaustion.

And there, at PC 14, the historic Eco-alliance was formed.

This morning, having completed the Sampan canoe leg together ("the first Anglo-American water mission since the Gulf," according to Byrne), the foursome readied their Perahu for the final leg.

"We can smell the finish line," said Byrne as they sailed out of PC 23. "And it smells of Guinness."

If all goes well, the remainder of their journey could take 40 hours.