Skate the Tahiti Marathon with the Leaders

Skate the Tahiti Marathon with the Leaders
February 20, 2001, Moorea, French Polynesia
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Ready for some heavy breathing on a tropical island? Well then come along and skate the rapturously scenic Tahiti Inline Marathon with the frontrunners, and you'll be sure to get a taste for something completely oxymoronic: working hard in paradise.

Here's what some of the top finishers in the men's division had to say about the 3rd annual event, as reported in the newspaper "Les Nouvelles":

Tristan Loy (France, 2nd place):
It was a very tactical race. We had to eliminate Eddy! We each took turns laying mines by attacking. Benoit (winner) cracked at the end and since I didn't think I could win the sprint alone with Eddy, I decided to wait for Benoit. When he came back, Eddy was marking me, so Benoit took advantage of that and took off like a rocket. I protected my teammmate and passed Eddy just at the end to take second. This was cool, racing for the first time in the southern hemisphere. Plus, I didn't expect that Moorea would be so raw and untouched. The jungle is wild! I totally want to come back to defend our honor next year"

Anatole Carawiane (Tahiti, 6th place):
"It's great! It's these kind of results that pay for all our hard training. The three in front were a little too fast for us, but that will come! Skating with Marius helps because we can trade off. Now I hope we'll be able to go skate races abroad."

Benoit Perthuis (France, winner)
"I'm dead. I had to wave off the paramedics after the race. It was brutal. My heart rate was 203 at the end! I've never broken out a sprint like that before in my life. Tristan did a ton of work for me. And Eddy's so strong to have been able to resist getting dropped the way it was the two of us against him. At the end, after I had dropped and then caught back on, Eddy didn't quite know what to do anymore.

Eddy Matzger (USA, 3rd place)
"That was war out there! After Dan blew up, it was two against one. I chased and chased. It's a bummer that Benoit dropped and still won the race! With Dan up there we could have done more damage and set up a win for TWINCAM. But that's racing. We've got a date for next year. I can't wait!"

Startola	Mountain man	Sprint!
Turnaround	Look back	Winner's shadow
Clapper	Dan supports himself	Muscly calf
Off road heaven	Scenic leaders	Paradise finish
Dan finish	Marius and Kiki	Goodbye Tahiti

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