Nadele Flynn misjudged teammate Kerrie Paterson's speed, leading to confusion at the transfer point at checkpoint five.

But it didn't matter much in the end.

The two repeated as women's two-person champions in the Kluane Chilkat International Road Relay on Saturday with a time of seven hours, seven minutes and 14 seconds.

The Atomic Turtles from Juneau took second in 8:00:58 and Whitehorse's Keeping It Wheel placed third in 8:11:33.

"I thought I had enough time and Kerrie was just too fast, so I got my bike off, got it set up, went to go do a quick warm up, listening to the numbers and all of a sudden Kerrie was there on the road saying, ‘Take this and go!'” Flynn said.

Paterson joked that she had a few choice words for her teammate.

"So I waited and I waited, and I called her, they called her on the speaker, and she wasn't there, and they said, ‘You can just keep riding,' so I kept riding, and then she was down the road warming up,” Paterson said.

But Flynn could be forgiven for the hiccup.

Near perfect conditions, especially at the beginning, helped riders achieve near record times.

The favourable tail winds allowed most experienced riders to shave an hour off the previous year's time and the winners were only a couple of minutes off breaking an event record.

The winning time was shared by two Fairbanks men's two-person teams, Bring Back The Draft and Big Log and Old Dog. Their time of 5:58:59 was three minutes off the record pace of 5:55:55 set in 2002 by a Whitehorse team.

In this year's two-person women's class, Flynn said the good conditions helped move her and her teammate into first.

"There was no headwind until you got to the Chilkat, and it was sunny and there was no rain. I think it rained earlier in the day, because the roads were wet, but I didn't really feel a drop on me. That's great just because you don't get cold so you can put all your energy into just biking,” Flynn said.

"We had a pretty good time last year. We were both training and racing right up to the event, so I think that led to a good performance. And I think the same this year, plus we had really good tail winds almost the whole way.” Paterson agreed.

"I think everybody's times were a little bit quicker this year because of that. It was a fast day,” she said.

The pair's winning ride came despite the checkpoint mix up and Paterson's sore hamstring, a slight injury she suffered during the Whitehorse Fun Triathlon at the beginning of the month.

"I think we both felt pretty good. We've done a lot of riding this year,” Paterson said, adding that waiting at the finish line can make for some tense moments.

But all in all, Flynn crossed the line as projected.

"I think you just hope it goes well for them,” Paterson said. "I left her with 20 kilometres to go so I could get in here to see her – I didn't want to miss her at the finish – and I was a little worried that that was too soon. I think she's done this stuff enough that she knows what she needs when she needs it, when to hydrate and all that stuff.”

And for Paterson and Flynn, if it isn't broke, don't fix it.

In the 2010 bike relay, Paterson took the first four legs while Flynn tackled the remaining four.

Paterson also won both the 2008 and 2009 bike relay in the women's solo class.

"She's really good at time trials, so the flats are really good for her,” Paterson said.

"It just works out well. And I guess according to our strengths and weaknesses, the first half and the second half, it just works out.”

Both Yukoners are training for the 2011 Desert Half Ironman in Osoyoos, B.C., in July.

"We train together and we're friends when we're not racing, similar interests and similar dedication to cycling and training,” Flynn said of linking up with Paterson two years in a row.

"Most of the reason people come here is for the party. If you don't want to bike with someone who you're not going to be able to enjoy your time with after the race, it's really not about the race, it's more of an event, and if you do well that's great, and if you don't, at least you can party and forget about it,” she laughed.