Keith Nichol, a veteran of many brevets including the inauguaral Ultimate Island Explorer 2000 km, Paris-Brest-Paris and London-Edinburgh-London, carried out his plan of riding roughly a sixth of the route each day along with fellow veteran 1200 km randonneur Eric Fergusson. Fergusson started the UIE 2000 with a sore Achilles tendon. It was amazing that he finished the ride.

Yutaka Moriwaki, who flew from Japan especially to ride the UIE 2000 for the second time, was ecstatic about his successful finish, given that he had been struck by a ‘little old lady’ trying to park her car in Tofino. Although experiencing no serious injury, Moriwaki’s rear STI did not fare so well. At the 800 km mark, he started a 120 km ride in the late evening through wilderness with only one useable gear. Fortunately, a few other gears became active. He did not stop for repairs.

Mainly the route followed paved back-roads traversing west and east across Vancouver Island as the route travelled north and then ran more or less south from the turnaround point (Port McNeill) at approximately 1500 km., back to Victoria. The constant climbing caused the riders to make some derogatory comments about the organizer during the last few hundred kilometres as they felt many of the hills were rather gratuitous.