OSCODA- Steve Lajoie and Wesley Dean are taking home the trophy after a time of 14:23:06 this was Dean’s first ever marathon win, but for Lajoie it was number 13. It came down to the wire as Steve and Wesley were just 5 seconds ahead of Christophe Proulx and Ryan Halstead at the last checkpoint before the finish line, Foote Dam.
The duo of Lajoie and Dean were able to open up a two-minute gap in the last hour.
Wesley Dean said that they needed to win it, when they had the chance, “Just the desire to win Steve said we did not want to sprint those guys at the end cause they’re extremely fast so basically, we both put it all on the line there we said basically that was the time to go for it.”
Steve Lajoie said this may be his final Au Sable River Canoe Marathon. “Last year was supposed to be my last one, so this year with the 75th felt like, you know, give it another shot with the. With, you know, try to make him (Wesley) win, you know, so, uh, I mean, it just takes a lot of energy. So, I think I’m, maybe I’m old enough to let the other guys win and do their stuff.” Lajoie added that the race came down to what energy they had saved up in the last 13 hours. “We knew we saved it. For the last part and went as hard as we could. Like, we basically went like it’s a 20-minute, sprint and we were able to break away. Once you get the hardest is to get the breakaway right. So as soon as we got it, they kinda blew out and we kept going as hard as we could for as long as we could.”
Christophe Proulx and Ryan Halstead finished in 2nd place with a 14:25:48, the full list can be found here
