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In a reporting perk available only in a place like the Yukon, I was able to combine race coverage with competition in Saturday's bike relay.

Together with my wife Amy, and a group of good friends, we formed team No Brakes, and competed in the eight-man mixed division, the largest of the relay, featuring 71 teams.

Just two of our riders, Harrison Kwok and Brent Ristau, had competed in last year's cold and wet affair. They had won that race – which featured some of the worst weather the race has ever endured – as the first eight-man team to cross the finish line in 9:18:10.

On Saturday, the two repeated their victory with a revamped team roster, shaving nearly two hours off last year's time in the process.

With favourable winds and a warm sun in the sky, team No Brakes raced to victory in a time of 7:23:56 to finish first among all eight-man teams.

It was a thrilling day to be a part of.

Throughout the race, the Haines Highway was lined with traffic, including hundreds of support vehicles and 1,200 cyclists, that combined with stunning mountain backdrops to create a spectacle that has to be seen to be fully appreciated.

Our team got off to a good start, with Kwok setting a strong pace following a mass start just after 8:30 a.m. in a very busy Haines Junction.

Our subsequent riders – team captain Kathleen Jarvis, Josh Wiebe, Charles Turanich-Noyen and Ristau – managed to keep that pace in legs that often led them straight uphill.

I got the call for leg six, a 26.9-km mostly downhill route that saw me top speeds of 40-km an hour. At times, I pedaled my bike out, meaning I was going too fast to even bother pedaling.

Every few kilometres, I would whoosh past our support team, led by super-drivers Jennifer Wiebe and Alie Turanich-Noyen, who would shout encouragement and snap photos from the road shoulder.

While hurtling down the highway at full speed, I had to consciously remind myself several times to look around and soak in the scenery. Travelling through vistas featuring white-capped mountains and lush forest on a bicycle was an experience I will lock into my memory forever.

None of us would consider ourselves avid cyclists, other than para-cyclist John-Paul Austring, who has trained towards a national time standard in the past. Austring powers his bike with only his right leg.

In what may be the most memorable moment of all, it was Austring who gave us the lead for good, passing the two eight-man leaders during the 37.5-km leg seven, setting up Amy for a successful 30.8-km anchor leg into Haines.

She would finish in style, spending the majority of the leg drafting with a group of six men who overtook her a little way after the seventh checkpoint.

When she crossed the finish line with her fist in the air, Amy had extended the time differential over the runner-up team to 9:40, kicking off a night of celebration.

For once, it was nice to experience what winning was like from the other side of the reporter's notebook.