The Texans rode the fast stream across the finish line.

The voyageur canoe team may for now be safely referred to as the undisputed masters of the Yukon River Quest.

The team repeated as champions by paddling 720 kilometres (460 miles) of the Yukon River from Whitehorse to Dawson City in a time of 42 hours, 17 minutes.

The Texans cut 31 minutes from their winning time last year, 42:48.

Richard Ameen, David Kelly and Mike Rendon were members of last year's winning team, while Andrew Stephens, William Russell and R.D. Kissling were first-timers.

They arrived in Dawson City to a welcoming crew.

"Right now I'm ready to go to the Downtown Hotel and get a Sour Toe Cocktail,” Kelly said.

"I feel trashed and tired,” he added.

The Texans arrived in much different shape than they had in Carmacks, where they were falling or being pulled from their boat.

In Dawson, they hugged their support crew and exchanged tired-looking handshakes amongst themselves.

But they're used to this sort of exhaustion.

Rendon, Stephens, Russell and Kissling each paddled in the Texas Water Safari, a 260-mile paddle through scorching conditions, earlier this month.

Which helped nothing, Russell said.

"This race was particularly hard … harder than I expected.”

He tweaked his back during the Water Safari.

"You just have to try and forget about it and just be tough and just pretend like it's not happening and do your best. I mean, it was miserable, most of the race, to be honest with you,” Russell said.

But that misery was not without its charm, he noted.

At one point, a bear was swimming across the Yukon River.

"We had to try and decide if we were going to go to the right of the bear or the left of the bear, so we had to sprint to beat the bear to the bank,” Russell laughed.

Did that make you nervous?

"Not really. But it was awesome.”

That bear was just about the only companionship the Texans had on the water.

Second-place finishers, the Whitehorse-based Sausages and Mussels, a mixed voyageur canoe team, finished second in 44:37 minutes.

The Texans broke away from the pack early despite breaking a seat 10 minutes into the race and snapping a paddle shortly thereafter.

"At Carmacks I felt pretty refreshed and I was surprised my back felt better and felt good the next day,” Russell said.

"But this morning getting up at Kirkman Creek was rough. That was super rough, because we were cold, and I didn't have any time to fall asleep. It was a rough one. But it made it easier knowing that today was the last day and we just had to push it one more day.

Needless to say, seeing the finish line was a relief.

"It's pretty invigorating knowing that the misery is almost over,” Russell laughed.

Kelly said reaching the end provokes innumerable feelings.

Physically, he was exhausted. Structurally, he said, he felt solid. Nutritionally, his sugar levels were good.

"Mentally, it's kind of a mixed bag completing an event like this. There's the desire and a longing to get to the finish line, both for celebration, because we won, for celebration because we're completing something together; but I think inevitably, the undervalued part of it is there's a sadness because it's the end of something, it's the end of rich celebration, rich competition, it's the end of camaraderie and friendship and pulling together, and so there's a sadness with that.”

Kelly hadn't met the three newcomers before sitting in a boat with them for nearly 50 hours. They spoke twice via conference call, he said.

"There's almost this lull in the last mile or two from the finish, when it's in sight, and we're ready to rock and roll and get to the finish. I feel it. Three of these guys I've never met before. Never met before Monday,” Kelly said.

Ameen scouted the three newcomers.

Kelly said it was a matter of trusting Ameen to get good paddlers.

And above that, good guys you'd want to spend nearly 50 hours with in a boat.

"Everybody pulled together and raced together well, and really supported each other, no bickering,” Kelly said.

"Experience matters a lot, and these guys are experienced racers and they're experienced paddlers, and they're really competent. Part of the cool thing about team paddle racing like this, if you're a jerk, if you're totally egotistical, totally selfish, you probably won't last long.

"If you race enough, I think you will gain humility, I don't care how old you are, you have to gain humility or you won't survive. Long races like this aren't about spending time thinking of who you are and believing who you could be – not spending time in your imagination – it's spending time in reality.” Ameen agreed.

"Winning is just an accomplishment of some of the goals,” Ameen added.

"It's more important to get along with your teammates, for your teammates to want to paddle with you again, to be able to come back again and race again, and be ambassadors of the sport. We're ambassadors of Texas. We come up here and we want to portray a good image.”