Salomon's seven-event, three-continent X-adventure World Cup wrapped-up on Sunday, with Spain's Salomon Extrem taking the gold after the team's kayak was the first to plow into a lava-pebbled beach in Eastern Sicily.

While France's Ertips took 1st in the final Sicily X-adventure, finishing in just 20:48, its points for the series brought the team the bronze in the final Salomon X-adventure standings. Ranking 2nd in Sicily was Salomon Extrem with a finish time of 21:00, and Switzerland's Team Salomon Allianz Salomon 1 came in just 12 seconds behind to rank 3rd. In the final standings, Extrem ranked 1st with 180 points; X-Act, from Finland, took the silver with 175 points; and Ertips, the bronze medalists, finished just behind with 172 points.

"Yes, I am glad it's over," said a happy Eduardo Barcelo of Salomon Extrem, who noted that he's not sure if he will compete in the series next year. Teammate Pep Olle agreed that it was a relief to have the series come to an end, "Yet, while this adventure racing season was long, one of the best things about the X-adventure series was the camaraderie that had evolved between the teams." Olle proving his words true, excused himself, as series nemesis X-Act paddled into the finish, so he and teammate Monica Aguilera could congratulate them.

Throughout the race, Extrem and X-Act — which began the race with 170 and 165 points, respectively — fought head-to-head for the World Cup title. Adding to the excitement of the series was the fact that neither team knew which was ahead until they had both crossed the finish line. Pushing through to the end was scrappy Ertips, whose members gained an impressive 25 points with their 1st place finish. Ertips started the race with just 147 points.

Appropriate for its island setting, the race began and ended with sea kayaking. The teams shoved off from Cefalu, a picturesque town on the Mar Tirreno, and finished — 244 miles later — also on kayaks, gliding though the Mar Ionio. In between the two seas, the 42 teams trekked, mountain biked, canyoneered and abseiled through mountain ranges and past historical Mount Etna, which greeted them the day before the race with its fourth eruption of the year.

Sicilians are world-renowned for their hospitality, but Mount Etna gave racers a foreboding welcome with its race-eve eruption. And as anyone who's seen Etna erupt on a clear night could tell you, the volcano is beautiful but dangerous when angry.

On Saturday night, after two days, Etna was still seething while racers camped nearby. During the 16-kilometer, 800-meter climb on Sunday morning, the mountain remained feisty, and Team Extrem recounted having to dodge lava pebbles and rocks that the caldera was spitting out.

Barcelo and Olle, Team Extrem, held up their hands and wrists, which were covered with scratches and cuts: "This is not because it was hot," Olle said. "It was from them (lava pebbles and rocks) coming down."

While soggy journalists waited over an hour for racers to come through the canyoneering section, the word on the water was that Extrem had gotten lost during that Mount Etna orienteering section.

Not true, said Olle and Barcelo. The two Spaniards (who hail from Catalan) explained: At a check point (CP) during the Mount Etna-area orienteering on Sunday morning, the park service explained that ascending over 2700 meters was dangerous and therefore prohibited. To get to the next CP, they were told that they could take a 10-kilometer route that stayed at 2700 meters throughout. According to Olle and Barcelo, the other teams went up and over different ways, saving time and avoiding irregular, volcanic terrain. This mix up cost Team Extrem 40 minutes.

Race officials reported that they had to cancel one section of the race on Sunday because of bad weather, low visibility and fog on Mount Etna.

The remainder of the race consisted of canyoneering through the narrow rapids of the Gola di Alcantara, and the final push though the Mar Ionian to the beach.

On the local front, Italians had mixed results. The wild-haired and popular rock climber Marco Zaffaroni, whose Team Fresian ranked 34th due to a navigational error the first day, seemed disappointed. Zaffaroni was coming off a spectacular first-time performance in the Raid Gauloises, where his team ranked 21st. Antonio Rossi, three-time Olympic medalist and the toast of Italy, started the race with BXT Briko X-Team but jetted off to Rome on Sunday for the Pope's "Giubileo degli Sporti." Rossi spoke and joined the Pope, who had just denounced violence in sport the week prior, at the podium. Prior to his departure, Rossi's team lost its ranking because team members used their personal paddles in the first two sea kayaking sections.

The only Americans competing were Erica Clarkson, Rainer Schulz, David Fohrman and Marty Puerto of Team Bear, which did not rank because the team did not start the last section.

This X-adventure World Cup race series began in the spring of 2000 with an event in Spain/France. Subsequent races took place in Austria, the United States, Scandinavia, Great Britain, Japan and Sicily.