Solo kayaks first across the finish line

This year’s Yukon 1000 canoe and kayak race belongs to Ausy Toms.

This year’s Yukon 1000 canoe and kayak race belongs to Ausy Toms.

The solo kayaks from Australia, travelling as a duo, jumped out into the race lead right off the start and never relinquished it, crossing the finish line in Alaska first.

Team members Steve Pizzey and Tom Simmat arrived at 11:27 a.m. Alaska time Monday, completing the river trip in seven days, one hour, 27 minutes and 27 seconds.

That’s nearly a full day back of last year’s record finish time — six days, two hours, 11 minutes and seven seconds.

Not too far behind Ausy Toms was tandem canoe Starfactor. Rod Spinx and Greg Lennox came close to passing the leaders several times in the week-long race, but paddled across the finish about half an hour later, at 12:58 p.m.

Their total time was seven days, two hours, 58 minutes and sixseconds.
Starfactor managed to hold off fellow tandem canoe TIP-C.

The two teams were engaged in a back-and-forth battle the entire weekend. David Dahl and Rick Lorenzen had second place on Sunday, but fell back off down the stretch.

They finished at 1:34 p.m. – seven days, three hours, 34 minutes and 10 seconds after starting down the river.

Last year’s record time for a canoe still stands, at six days, eight hours and 54 minutes. The voyageur record also remains untouched, at six days, six hours and 52 minutes.

Sugar Creek Bears, the lone voyageur in the 2010 event, was the fourth team to the bridge, arriving at 9:17 p.m. Monday. They completed the 1,000-mile race in seven days, 11 hours, 17 minutes and 20 seconds.

Officials are still waiting for two more boats to finish the race. Tandem canoe Bearly Moving was about 10 kilometres before Stevens Village at 11 this morning. Sandra and Rob Mitchell are using their tracker and expected to finish sometime this afternoon.

Tandem kayak Shalom Viking is slow on providing updates. Bjorn Stansvik and Michael Anschel were last seen leaving Dawson around dinner time Monday. While there progress has been slow, they haven’t withdrawn from the race.

Three teams have withdrawn. As reported in the Star Thursday, a Grizzly End withdrew before Dawson due to medical issues.

Chapters 1 and 2, tandem kayaks from Calgary and Saskatoon, Sask., pulled out of the race in Dawson due to broken equipment and tired paddlers. They promised to return next year and complete the entire event.

Here are the official race reports from the weekend, courtesy of organizer Peter Coates:

Sunday

Day seven and the last full day of the race for some teams. Team 3, the solo kayaks, continue to hold the lead, but only by about 10 kilometres.

Two of the front runners seem to have called it a night quite early, stopping not that much after 9 p.m.That might not be unrelated to the rain squall that passed through about that time.

However, Team 5, TIP-C, like the previous night pressed on until almost 11 p.m., leapfrogging the rival canoe, but not the leading kayaks. They might have done that had they not made a poor channel choice earlier in the evening, choosing the longer, but more obvious northerly channel when the other boats went south. 

The complicated navigation is more or less over for these teams. But for the three other teams still in the race, navigation is still very much an issue.

The voyageur, Sugar Creek Bears, is 92 km back from the front pack and Bearly Moving is another 80 km behind them.

Saturday

The sixth day of the race saw the heat put on the solo kayaks up front. Overnight, TIP-C actually camped six kilometres down river of them. The Ausy Toms were on the water earlier Sunday morning though, and managed to regain the lead.

Starfactor is right up there too, battling with TIP-C for the first place canoe. Whether either or both can push past Ausy Toms to win outright remains to be seen.

There is still a significant gap between the front three teams and the two remaining teams. Team 1, Bearly Moving, has a little catching up to do if they want to catch the Voyageur, Sugar Creek Bears, but the Yukon Flats are a bit of a maze in places, and anything could happen.

Friday

The race seems to have changed character as it crossed the US border. Way out in front now we have Team 3, the two buddied solos in their own private race.

About 70 km behind them we have a real ding-dong race for first canoe. 

Team 5, TIP-C, is all of five minutes ahead of Team 4, Starfactor. And about 90 km behind them we have Team 1 Bearly Moving. About 25 km behind them are the Sugar Creek Bears.

More or less for the first time since Lake Laberge, we have boats able to see a boat they are racing against. I’d bet good money that tonight Teams 4 and 5 will either camp together or will both stop for the minimum six hours.

It is amazing how much difference being able to see a boat you are racing against makes. Without that you think you are secure in your position and that it is impossible for anyone to catch up, so you drop into cruise control.

For TIP-C and Starfactor that mode is over. The only thing that will stop these two teams battling away hard all the way to the bridge, is if one team breaks or Stockholm syndrome takes over and we end up with the eams holding hands to finish first equally.

The Yukon 1000 is the longest canoe and kayak race in the world. It runs 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometres) down the Yukon River, starting in Whitehorse.

Once past Dawson City, competitors paddle across into Alaska at Eagle, on to Circle and into the Yukon Flats.

They then continue past Fort Yukon, Beaver and Steven’s Village, communities only accessible by river or air, eventually reaching the end of the race where the Alaska Pipeline and the Dalton Highway cross the river.