The races
1995 - New England
The 1995 event started in Maine and finished in Newport, RI. Team Threadbo, featuring John Jacoby, Jane Hall, Rod Hislop, Novak Thompson and Andrew Hislop, won the inaugural event. The event was presented as the second Eco-Challenge.
2nd - (featuring Angelika Casteneda) Twin Team. Angelina Castaneda, Adrian Crane, Whit Rambach, Marshal Ulrich, Tom Possert.
3rd - Team Eco-Internet (Ian Adamson, John Howard, Keith Murray, Robert Nagle, Kathy Sassin-Smith)
1996 - New England
After a six-day, 350-mile race, the 1996 Event finished in a sprint, with Team Kobeer beating Team Eco-Internet by one second.
1st - Team Kobeer (Angelika Casteneda, John Howard, and Keith Murray)
2nd - Team Eco-Internet (Ian Adamson, Robert Nagle, Viven Prince)
3rd - Team Mirage
4th - Team Borah
5th - Team Presido
1997 - Baja California, Mexico
Beginning in Mexicali, Mexico, the winning team travelled six days and 311 miles before crossing the finish line in San Diego, California. Don Baker served as race director.
1st: Presidio Adventure Racing Academy (John Howard, Andrea Spitzer, and Ian Adamson)
2nd: Team Endeavor
3rd: Red Hot
Adventure racing is typically a multidisciplinary team sport involving navigation over an unmarked wilderness course with races extending anywhere from two hours up to two weeks in length. (What Is Adventure Racing Video) Some races offer solo competition as well. The principal disciplines in adventure racing include trekking, mountain biking, and paddling although races can incorporate a multitude of other disciplines including climbing, abseiling, horse riding, skiing and white water rafting. Teams generally vary in gender mix and in size from two to five competitors, however, the premier format is considered to be mixed gender teams of four racers. There is typically no suspension of the clock during races, irrespective of length; elapsed competition time runs concurrently with real time, and competitors must choose if or when to rest.
Christopher Miles Boardman, is a British former racing cyclist who won an individual pursuit gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics, broke the world hour record three times, and won three stages and wore the yellow jersey on three occasions at the Tour de France. In 1992, he was awarded an MBE for services to cycling.
Robert Steven 'Hizzy' Hislop was a Scottish motorcycle racer. Hislop won at the Isle of Man TT eleven times, won the British 250cc Championship (1990) and British Superbike championship.
Mari Kim Holden is an American former cycle racer, who won the world time trial championship in 2000 after winning a silver medal in the Olympic Games time trial in Sydney, Australia. She also won six U.S. championships, becoming the first American woman to win three consecutive U.S. time trial championships (1998–2000) and scoring a double by winning the U.S. time trial and road championships in 1999. She now works as a directeur sportif for UCI Women's Team Twenty20 Pro Cycling.
Deirdre "Dede" Demet Barry is an American female cycle racer, six times U.S. champion. She has won two World Cup races, two World Championship medals, and, in 2004, the silver medal in the time trial in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. She is married to fellow professional cyclist Michael Barry. They live in Toronto, ON, CA.
The American Solar Challenge (ASC), previously known as the North American Solar Challenge and Sunrayce, is a solar car race across the United States. In the race, teams from colleges and universities throughout North America design, build, test, and race solar-powered vehicles in a long distance road rally-style event. ASC is a test of teamwork, engineering skill, and endurance that stretches across thousands of miles of public roads.
Lyne Bessette is a politician and professional bicycle racer from Quebec, Canada. She was elected to represent the riding of Brome—Missisquoi in the 2019 federal election as a member of the Liberal Party of Canada.
The Velux 5 Oceans Race was a round-the-world single-handed yacht race, sailed in stages, managed by Clipper Ventures Plc since 2000. Its most recent name comes from its main sponsor Velux. Originally known as the BOC Challenge, for the title sponsor The BOC Group, the first edition was in 1982. In the late 1990s the race was renamed the Around Alone. After attracting just five entries in the 2010-11 race, the event has not been held since.
John Howard is considered the central pioneer of adventure racing.
Private Eye, the fortnightly British satirical magazine, has published various books and other material separately from the magazine since 1962.
The Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team of Virginia Tech, better known as HEVT, is a nationally recognized undergraduate student design team in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech. HEVT was formed in 1994 to compete in the 1995 Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) Challenge, one of the many competitions organized by the Argonne National Laboratory through the United States Department of Energy. HEVT has been involved in the Department of Energy Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions (AVTCs) ever since. HEVT attributes a significant amount of its success to their Advisor, Professor Doug Nelson in Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Nelson has received the Outstanding Faculty Advisor award at competition 3 times. He has greatly aided the education of students at Virginia Tech and helped the team succeed at competition The overall highlights of past competitions are as follows:
Ian Lougher is a Welsh motorcycle racer, noted for 8 victories in the North West 200, 10 wins at the Isle of Man TT Races and 32 wins at the Southern 100 Races in his career.
Eco-Challenge: The Expedition Race is a multi-day expedition length adventure race in which teams of four competed. It originally aired on TV from April 1995 to April 2002. Based closely on the Raid Gauloises adventure race, the broadcast of Eco-Challenge led to the popularity of the adventure racing.
2008 Isle of Man TT Festival was held between Saturday 24 May and Saturday 7 June on the 37.733-mile Snaefell Mountain Course and was the 89th Isle of Man TT Race. After the 2007 Centenary TT Races, the 2008 event included a second 600cc Supersport Junior TT race and the re-introduction of two-stroke motor-cycle racing with a Lightweight TT and Ultra-Lightweight TT race on the Billown Circuit in the Isle of Man.
Paul Curran is a former professional English racing cyclist from Thornaby, North Yorkshire.
Lisa Smith-Batchen is an ultramarathon runner and Ironman competitor. She was the first American to win Marathon des Sables.
Keith Rowley (1919–1982) was an Australian racing cyclist.
Ian Adamson is a former competitive adventure racer, television professional and president of World OCR, the Fédération Internationale de Sports d’Obstacles (FISO).
Robyn Benincasa is an American endurance racer, adventure racer, author, and motivational speaker. She was a competitor in several seasons of the Eco-Challenge: The Expedition Race reality television show. Her team won the 2000 Eco-Challenge in Borneo. She went on to found or co-found two companies focused on team-building for corporate clients. She is the founder of Project Athena, a nonprofit organization that helps women who have experienced medical challenges to fulfill their athletic ambitions. She holds three Guinness World Records.
World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji is television series documenting a long-range multi-day expedition race in which teams race non-stop with little to no sleep over mountains, jungles, and oceans. The series is a revival of the Eco-Challenge series first broadcast from 1995 to 2002. The race took place in Fiji in September 2019, and the television series documenting the race hosted by Bear Grylls premiered on Amazon Prime Video on August 14, 2020.
