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With an itinerary that would make a travel agent proud, racers in the Sadler's Alaska Challenge will embark Monday on a seven-day tour of Alaska filled mountains, rivers, glaciers and ferry rides.
Only this is no vacation. A record of field of 36 handcyclists and wheelchair racers -- including some of the sport's biggest names -- will celebrate the race's 25th anniversary on a new course loaded with challenges. Once a Parks Highway marathon from Fairbanks to Anchorage, this year's race will completely bypass Fairbanks and Anchorage except for a post-race awards banquet in Anchorage. Instead, competitors will race in Seward, Hope, Girdwood, Cordova, Valdez, Lake Louise and Hatcher Pass, and see a lot of Alaska along the way. Twice they'll board an Alaska Marine Highway ferry, going to and from Cordova. "It'll be cool," said racer Bill Lasher of Anchorage, who is entered for the fourth time. "I've never been to Cordova, and I went to Valdez as a little kid. It's neat that it's near Anchorage; I can have family that can go to Girdwood or Seward for the day. That's pretty cool." Matching the spectacular scenery will be some spectacular athletes. Some were disabled at birth or by childhood diseases, others were hurt in accidents, others in real wars and street wars. James Lilly of Chicago was shot by a rival gang member as a teenager and his injuries turned his life around. Melissa Stockwell of Chicago was on a routine convoy in Iraq when a roadside bomb exploded and left her with an amputated leg; a swimmer on the U.S. Paralympic Team last summer, she carried the American flag at the closing ceremonies in Beijing. Among the top names entered: • Ernst Van Dyk of South Africa, a six-time Boston Marathon winner and Beijing Paralympic gold medalist; • Heinz Frei of Switzerland, who has collected 14 Paralympic medals and 104 marathon victories; • Saul Mendoza of Mexico, a former world record-holder in three distances, a six-time Paralympic medalist and his nation's Athlete of the Century; • Andrea Eskau of Germany and Monique Van der Vorst of the Netherlands, who staged a 1-2 finish in the women's road race at Beijing, with Eskau nipping Van der Vorst at the end. The Alaska Challenge is being touted as their rematch. Seven Alaskans are entered -- the most ever -- including durable Larry Coutermarsh of North Pole, the only person to do the race in each of its 25 years. TOUGH FINISH The race begins Monday morning with a time trial at Exit Glacier, followed by an afternoon criterium in downtown Seward. It ends a week from today at the top of Hatcher Pass. Lasher expects things to get worse as the week goes on. "The beginning will be fine," he said. "The last three days are all steep hills and long days." The race serves up brutality from Thursday on, beginning with a 55-mile road race that starts at sea level in Valdez and goes up and over notoriously steep Thompson Pass, which rises 2,700 feet. The next day brings more hills in the form of a 54-mile road race going from the headquarters of Wrangell St. Elias National Park to the end of Lake Louise Road. And then comes the grand finale -- a 30-mile race from Sutton to the top of Hatcher Pass. The final several miles, from the Motherlode Lodge to Independence Mine, is a relentless climb capable of taxing cars, much less human-propelled wheelchairs and handcycles. "If you look at the (course) profiles, Hatcher Pass is worse than Thompson Pass," Lasher said. "One thing that'll make it worse is you have a tough hill day that's long, followed by another tough hill day that's long, and then another hill day that's steep." Race co-director Ian Lawless thinks the Hatcher Pass climb could be the make-or-break stage of the race. "The last eight miles is one of the toughest climbs in North America," said Lawless, a Colorado man who is executive director of U.S. Handcycling. "It's epic. The entire race after seven stages could chance on that course." It will be the first mountain-top finish in race history, Lawless said. WHAT DOES FUTURE HOLD? Lasher, who designs and custom-builds wheelchairs and handcycles, said he has trained between 1,500 to 2,000 miles for the 253-mile race, with an emphasis on hill climbing. "I've done a lot of training to try to simulate (the course), but I haven't driven all over the state trying to do each one," he said. "I do some hills at Kincaid Park and the hills coming in and out of Eagle River. I keep doing that over and over." It's been nearly 20 years since Lasher last raced. The race was called the Midnight Sun Ultra Challenge back then and it went the full 367 miles between Fairbanks and Anchorage. Over the years, the race was shortened to 267 miles in order to skirt dangerous parts of the road. It was an all-wheelchair affair at the beginning, but about a decade ago handcycles eclipsed wheelchairs as the vehicle of choice. They are faster and less punishing. Out of 36 men and women entered this year, only three will race in wheelchairs. The new course was put into place to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the world's only multi-day timed stage race for wheelchairs and handcycles. For organizers, the task of designing and setting up courses in several towns -- not to mention planning ferry rides to and from Cordova for 36 racers, their chairs plus a support crew of 45 people and more than 25 vehicles -- was their version of next Sunday's Hatcher Pass hill climb. It was a challenge. "It's way, way more work," said Heather Plucinski of Challenge Alaska. She and Lawless said they don't know whether future races will follow the new format or revert to the familiar journey down the Parks Highway. Much will depend on how the new version works out. "Ask us in 10 days," Lawless said.