With the Tetons as a backdrop and divisions for everyone from enduro-geeks to families, this is arguably the country's best multisport race. But the variety—a three-mile, 3,500-vertical-foot downhill ski; 10K cross-country ski; 20-mile road ride; and final nine-mile, Class I–II boating leg down the Snake River—can be a gear debacle, warns Olympic gold medalist and race veteran Tommy Moe. "If you're competing as an individual, having someone help you at the transitions is huge," he says. Another secret: On the river leg, "if you have a really fast downriver boat, you can make up a lot of time." Or round up your buddies, get some good costumes, and enter the "Fun Class," where entrants are judged not on time but, rather, as the rule book states, "how much fun they appear to be having." From $35; polepedal­paddle.com