Compiled by Outside Online

For a preview of this year's Eco-Challenge, click here

October 25, 2001 This time, the well-rested tortoise beat the bleary-eyed hare.

Team Solomon/Eco-Internet of the United States overcame a tough-but-exhausted New Zealand team hours from the finish line today to capture the 8th annual Eco-Challenge in an unofficial time of four days, five hours, and 34 minutes.

New Zealand's Team PureNZ.com finished second, just 22 minutes behind. Team Spie of France finished third.

Team PureNZ.com jumped to an early lead and surged way ahead of the Americans, thanks to a daring strategy that called for a rugged, non-stop pace with no sleep. The plan ultimately backfired, however, and by 2 A.M. on the fourth day the Americans had taken the lead for good.

"It's about racing psychology," U.S. team captain Ian Adamson explained in a report on the official Eco-Challenge Web site. "You just go so fast that the teams behind you are psyched out by your sheer speed and power...on day four we really didn't think we could beat them," he said. Teams like New Zealand "go three times faster, but they usually can't keep up the speed. We're really the tortoises in this race."

Race director Mark Burnett agreed.

"The Kiwis have been saying all along that Kiwis don't need sleep," he said in a news release. But after four days of hard racing without sleep, Burnett said the New Zealander's "literally could not walk a straight line from sleep deprivation."

The Eco-Internet team included captain Ian Adamson and Michael Kloser, two members from the team that won last year's Eco-Challenge race in Borneo. Other team members included Sarah Ballantyne, who was on the team that won the 1999 Eco-Challenge in Morocco, and Michael Tobin.

Most of the remaining 60 teams were still on the course at press time.

More Eco-Challenge results are available online at /outside/news/headlines/www.ecochallenge.com