DART dominates Pacific Northwest; can it step up against the best in the world?
Posted on 02/16/06 5:11 AM| by Will
February 16, 2006
By Mike Bitton
Outside Pacific Northwest adventure racing circles, team DART probably sounds like a gang of grease monkeys that can’t get over its Mopar fetish. In Washington and Oregon, though, DART is synonymous with dominance in multi-sport endurance races. In 2005, it won the Pacific Northwest Adventure Racing Championship for the third year in a row, and captured first place in the Explore California adventure racing series. This year
DART even made a worldwide impression in October 2005 when it placed 5th out of 35 teams at EcoMotion in Brazil. Much of the international field was stunned. This continuing success has led to a not-surprising amount of interest from sponsors, and the team recently picked up nuun, a growing electrolyte supplement company, as a big sponsor. As the company points out, nuun is optimal hydration made easy. nuun takes a back-to-basics approach to hydration: simple, sugar free, soluble tabs stored within a portable tube. Each compact tube contains 12 tabs; supplying 1.5 gallons of electrolyte hydration. That’s enough to keep you out there racing for days with a minimum of fuss. Just drop a tab in your water bottle, or race bladder… by the time you’ve tied your laces or put on your pack, you’ve got a complex electrolyte drink that recharges your mind and body. nuun’s flavors are light and refreshing. The low acidity reduces stomach irritation and the hypotonic solution is more efficiently absorbed than water alone or most sports drinks on the market.
So who is this team DART?DART is a team of nine athletes who rotate in and out of the lineup depending on race venues and racer availability. For the 2006 Primal Quest, DART will be team captain Cyril Jay-Rayon, Ryan VanGorder, Matt Hart and Jen Segger.
The men live in Seattle, and Segger hails from British Columbia, Canada. Jay-Rayon generally handles navigation, while VanGorder, Hart and Segger act as engines capable of pounding away mile after mile. Hart qualified for mountain biking’s ultimate 2005 suffer-fest: the 24 Hours of Adrenalin World Solo Championships in Whistler, B.C. Segger ran the 2005 Marathon des Sables in North Africa’s Sahara Desert, where she covered 150 miles in just seven days.
The 2005 adventure racing season featured many DART victories. In addition to the Explore California series, the team won the three-race TRIOBA adventure race series in Washington, and the four-race Wicked Adventure Racing series in Oregon. It also took first place at Raid the North in Nelson, B.C., Canada.
Countless things have to fall into place for any team to win consistently. Not every race went as DART planned in 2005. Consider the team’s disqualification in April at the AdventureXstream Moab in Utah. After having thought it had beaten legendary team Nike/Balance Bar to take first place, DART was disqualified for taking an out-of-bounds route.
And how about the team’s disappointing performance in June 2005 at the X-Adventure Raid’s North American stop in Bend, Ore.? With the course set in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, DART should have had something of a home-team advantage. Instead, it placed 21st out of 52 teams.
The bitterest loss of all in 2005 may have been DART’s second-place finish at the final TRIOBA race of the season in Washington state. Just two minutes behind team Mergeo.com, DART literally watched the winners cross the finish line before them. DART still had the points to carry the series, but there’s a new monkey on the team’s back, and that monkey will likely haunt DART throughout 2006.
There is no question DART is physically strong. But can the team also be savvy enough to make a good showing against the world-class competition at Primal Quest 2006?
DART’s 2004 Primal Quest finish (racing as dirtworld.com) was an impressive 11th out of 60 teams. Not bad, considering it was the first expedition-length race for most of the team’s members. But Jay-Rayon is the only remaining member of the team from that race, making the others newcomers to the expedition-length format of PQ.
Hart said DART’s 11th place finish at Primal Quest 2004 proved that a Pacific Northwest team can make a good showing in an international field. Eleventh place this time around, though, would be a disappointment, Hart said. “We’ve been improving so much, I think we’re capable of a strong performance at PQ06.”
VanGorder also exudes confidence about DART’s odds of a strong finish at PQ06. He predicts a top-10 showing. “We are moving beyond figuring things out,” VanGorder said. “Not to say we are not constantly learning, but I think with a healthy team we will have the ability to perform well.”
Segger said she looks forward to the challenges of PQ06, because the race will teach DART how to be a more efficient and competitive team. “You have to race against the top teams in the world if you’re going to get better,” Segger said. “It’s the only way to improve. I think we’ve been making a great name for ourselves in the sport, and I look forward to proving ourselves at Primal Quest.”
