Serge Corbin and Jeff Kolka beaten on Au Sable!

Serge Corbin has won the annual Au Sable canoe race 15 times since 1987 and the last eight years in a row but the winning streak came to an end this past weekend:

For nearly 15 hours, through temperatures in the 30s and dense fog, Andrew Triebold and Steve Lajoie matched Serge Corbin and Jeff Kolka stroke for stroke until the teams were only 200 yards from the end of the 120-mile Weyerhaeuser Au Sable River Canoe Marathon. Then after some 60,000 paddle strokes, Kolka made a tiny error on 60,001. Paddling furiously, Triebold and Lajoie squirted ahead to win the 57th annual race by 13 seconds and end Kolka and Corbin's eight-year winning streak.

Triebold and Lajoie finished in 14 hours, 59 minutes, 46 seconds, more than an hour off the record of 13.58:08 set by Corbin and Solomon Carriere in 1994. Kolka and Corbin were second in 14:59:59, and Rick Joy of Silverwood and Louis Berthiaume of Berthierville, Quebec, were third in 15:07:08.

Fifty-nine teams started the race in Grayling at 9 p.m. Saturday, running three blocks through town in a Le Mans start before dumping the boats into the Au Sable at Ray's Canoe Livery.

Fourteen teams dropped out during the night, some because of injury or illness, some because they fell behind cutoff times at the 15 checkpoints, and a few who suffered from hypothermia as temperatures along the river dropped as low as 34 degrees.

In other news, Lance Armstrong won his sixth Tour de France.

Is there a comparison here between the American Armstrong winning 6 consecutive Tour de France's vs. the French Canadian Corbin winning 8 consecutive Au Sable Canoe Marathons?