Year 2000 brought a lot of opportunities and changes to Block Alternatives, especially for Rich Bartlett. Rich had been a BMX racer his whole life and was an accomplished dirt jumper as well as AA Pro. He spent many years on the road and settled down in 1991 to start Block Racing (at the time was BMX frames and forks). With the immediate success of Block, Rich's time was consumed by the business. Training time and racing were pushed to the back burner. From 1991 to 1996 Block went in many directions, primarily BMX accessories,  inline hockey uniforms, as well as a couple of years making paintball uniforms. Business was good and Block was up to nearly 20 employees, but something was missing. It was the physical competition. Rich had missed 5 years of competing and needed something. In February of 96 Insane Wayne Croasdale (a close friend ) brought a mountain bike in for Rich to ride and to train with him on. During this same period Eco Challenge was being televised on the Discovery Channel and Rich was captivated by the ability of people pushing themselves past failure. Wayne and Rich continued to train together for the course of the year with a strict regiment, but totally different goals. Wayne was a top (previous World Champion) downhill racer and Rich was focusing on cross country. Rich was not a naturally built cross country racer by any means. At 220 pounds was more suited for the WWF than NORBA. But he was determined and for 2 seasons he raced Southern California races in the sport class struggling just to get a podium. A back injury sidelined him for most of the 1999 season. Then it happened - all at once. Rich had met Jim Weiland in 1998 and they talked about the desire to do Adventure Racing and more specifically Eco Challenge. For a year not much materialized but at the first Team Big Bear race of 2000 Jim and Rich made a commitment to make it happen.

The 2000 Race Season

For their first Adventure Race they recruited fellow mountain bike racer Bert Blanchette and decided to race the men's division at the inaugural  Cal-Eco/Team Big Bear sprint race at Bonelli Park in Southern California. For three hours the members of  Team Block suffered leg cramps from running and heart-rates well up into the 190s not to mention their poor performance in the kayak. When all was said and done they finished third overall and first in the men's division. All three racers were destroyed and barely able to load their equipment to drive home. An addiction to pain and suffering had begun and it was the first in a long season of races and progression. Bert had job restrictions and children that limited his travel and training. Jim had decided to become an adventure gypsy and spend the next year on the road  hitting races, camps and festivals. Rich was able to break away at will and the two of them spent the next few months hitting every event on the west coast. Enter Paul Romero. Paul was at Bonelli as a race advisor. Paul had just come back from the ELF Authentic Adventure in Brazil and had completed previous Eco-Challenges. He took Rich and Jim under his wing and started to mold them into competitive 24 hour racers. For the next couple of months they trained under Paul's program and completed numerous Hi-Tec sprint races, 24 hour mountain bike races and 24 hour Adventure Races. Jim hooked up with an ad campaign with Camelback and was featured in a story of his travels in Mountain Bike magazine. He also got the bug for rock climbing and traveled the entire fall from Oregon to Mexico climbing. Romero recruited Bartlett for the Salomon X-Adventure in Snowmass Colorado where he showed him what real race suffering was all about. That was it, Rich fell for it hook line and sinker. For the next 5 months Rich hit 13 events with teammates that Romero hooked him up with. At Salomon, Bartlett also raced with Julie Minahan and Marcello Duarte for the first time. Julie was racing while Marcello handled the thankless job of support. Back in June Bartlett had met Rasmus Hellberg . Rasmus is an accomplished mountain bike racer and navigational genius from Sweden and is currently residing in San Diego. Hellberg, Bartlett and Minihan hooked up and raced the Walkabout in Idyllwild California as "Team Block". A second place finish in the three man co-ed class behind Adventure 4 was the strongest finish to date. "Team Block" now established went into the FogDog Adventure Race virtually unknown and scored a 6th place finish out of 85 teams behind teams such as Adventure 4, Eco Internet, and Red Bull. Bartlett and Hellberg teamed up for the last few races of the season with Rasmus' brother Erik Hellberg, who was visiting from Sweden. Racing as the all male version of Team Block the three went on to win their class at the Desert Dash sprint race in Las Vegas, Underground Scramble in Malibu California, and the Cal-Eco Finals in San Jose California where they went on to win the overall in 28 hours and 45 minutes. Winning the two man division at the 2001Catalina Island Adventure Challenge, Minahan and Bartlett showed that they are even stronger this year.  Bartlett also took a sub position on Team Karma and they went on to win the 2001 4 Winds Supreme in Teton Valley, Idaho in a total of 6 Days 11.5 hours. With the anxiety to do the Eco Challenge in New Zealand 2001 "Team Block" will continue to push forward and make this upcoming year a total success.