Eco-Challenge Winners: America's Team Salomon Eco-Internet

KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia, August 31, 2000 (ENS) - Eco-Challenge has a winner, the American team Salomon Eco-Internet. More than a dozen teams are still racing across eastern Malaysian Borneo, and the competition is not officially over until tomorrow, but the first, second and third place finishers came in on Sunday.

On their final night in the race, as they paddled an outrigger canoe across the ocean in full view of the television cameras, the four members of Salomon/Eco-Internet, Ian Adamson, Robyn Benincasa, Isaac Wilson and Michael Kloser, stripped off their clothes and kept on paddling. "We just let it all hang out," says Adamson.

Salomon Eco-Internet team paddles first across the finish line. (Photos courtesy Eco-Challenge 2000)

One of the more magical moments for Wilson, came on the grueling mountain bike path, when the team of racers came across a herd of elephants. "We literally stopped biking to watch them, as they were just cruising around and doing their thing," Wilson said.

Second place Team Spie, the only French team in the race, was created out of an alliance between two former competitors. Captain Eric Cassaigne and Jean Francois Robin joined forces with former adversaries Beatrice Piolat and Karim Benamrouche specifically for Eco-Challenge Sabah 2000.

Team Spie of France came in second.

"We are spies," says Cassaigne.

Third place team, AussieSpirit.com, is captained by environmental scientist Jane Hall. She and teammate bank manager John Jacoby have placed in the top ten in every Eco-Challenge since 1995.

The top teams say this year’s Eco-Challenge is one of the most challenging and the most competitive races ever. AussieSpirit's Hall, said, "The competition was tremendous. Perhaps the best I’ve ever seen."

The teams crossed raging rivers, paddled indigenous canoes called perahus, hiked and mountain biked steep terrain, and climbed rattan ropes in the Madai Caves, they scuba dived and swam and paddled outrigger canoes.

Eco-Challenge racers climb ropes in Madai Cave

The finish line is within reach when teams reach Pulau Sibuan, a small privately owned island in the middle of the Celeb Sea. After Sibuan, teams must make one final 20 kilometer (12.4 mile) perahu paddle back to Semporna.

The teams reach the island after torturing and testing their bodies with sleep deprivation, hunger and physical abuse for days. They are tired and sore and ready for the end. They want to check in and check out of the last checkpoint as quickly as they can. But Pulau Sibuan is more than a check in - it is also a dive site.

Teams must remain on Sibuan for 90 minutes, and each team member must get in the water. If a competitor is deemed unfit to dive, snorkeling replaces diving. The teams must navigate an underwater course and do a 10 meter (30 foot) dive.

Mark Burnett

Burnett is producing an Eco-Challenge 2000 television documentary for the USA Network this year. He has documented all the Eco-Challenge races since 1996 for the Discovery Channel.

Burnett also created and produced the hit TV show "Survivor." His sequel, "Survivor II: The Australian Outback," will be shot in October and November and will be aired at the end of January 2001.

In 1992, Burnett founded Eco-Challenge Lifestyles, Inc. His goal was to create a new type of outdoor race based upon the highly successful multi-sport endurance competitions that began in New Zealand a decade earlier. Burnett added a focus on responsible use of back country lands and promotion of environmental awareness.

Burnett celebrates their victory with the Salomon Eco-Internet team

"You have to really think outside yourself," says Benincasa. "We’re more worried about each other than we are about ourselves. So you know there are always three people concerned for your well-being, making sure you’re okay."

Team captain Adamson likens the Eco-Challenge to a week in a telephone booth. "Imagine being in a telephone booth with three close friends. And you eat in there, and you sleep in there, and you’re all always there. That’s the only way I can describe Eco-Challenge. At least I got to do it with people I like."

Benincasa calls this year’s Eco-Challenge "a race of attrition" where the strongest and grittiest team would win. "And that’s us," she exults.