As the sun rose over Sir Bani Yas Island on day two of the Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge, DART-nuun team member Mari Chandler pedaled her mountain bike up a dusty hill. "Great teammates I have, huh?" she shouted to me as she climbed.

"They're ahead of you, Mari," I tried to console her, "but they think you're ahead of them!"

DART-nuun had been in the front pack of mountain bikers, where nuances of the paved and unpaved roads here require occasional separation from teammates to keep the peleton rolling along. Mari had fallen back a bit, but the boys, including Glenn Rogers, Ryan VanGorder and Matt Hayes, thought she'd turned on the afterburners and pulled ahead.

The result? The boys riding all-out, thinking they really had to reconnect with Mari. At the same time, Mari knew the boys were ahead of her, was riding as hard and fast as she could to catch up.

I never saw tempers flare over the mistake, but they came close. At the finish line, VanGorder offered something of a coach's half-time inspiritonal message: "That was some pretty fouled up stuff, DART," he said. "We'll get 'em next time. Sorry Mary. We won't let it happen again."

"Not if you want me on your team," Mari told Ryan.

And then it got really quiet. Because these boys really do want Mari on their team.