Greg and Denise McHale have returned to the adventure race circuit with one goal in mind.

The Carcross couple has signed on with Team Tecnu this season with a world title in their sights.

Currently ranked among the world’s top 10, Tecnu is the three-time defending U.S. national champions with hopes of finally claiming an Adventure Racing World Championship this season.

“It just feels like some unfinished business and a desire to suffer some more,” Denise McHale chuckled this morning.

“It all seemed to fall into place at a really good time for us. We’ve always wanted to go back to a world championship and be on the podium. That’s kind of the driving force. That’s the big goal.”

The couple raced on the circuit for eight years previously, after getting their start right here in Yukon in 2002, when the territory hosted the Raid the North Extreme adventure race.

The McHales raced alongside fellow locals Hans Gatt and Thomas Tetz, finishing sixth.

In 2004, they attended their first world championship in Newfoundland, finishing seventh.

Over their last five years of “semi-retirement,” the McHales opened the Caribou Crossing Trading Post and started a family, which now includes a three-year-old son, Kolter, and 10-month-old daughter, Yari.

“We took some time off because we wanted to have a family,” said McHale, 42. “This sport is super-challenging and very time consuming because you have to train for so many different disciplines.”

The sport sees four athletes move as a team through multi-day enduro races that feature many disciplines such as trail running, mountain biking, paddling and rope work.

Teammates need to stay within 100 yards of each other throughout the race, or risk disqualification. All racing is unsupported.

The first event for the new-look squad is in May, while the world championship qualifier known as Cowboy Tough will take place over three and a half days in Wyoming in July.

“We’re pretty excited to get back into the sport,” said Greg McHale, 43.

“We’re pretty fortunate to come back with the top team in North America.”

The couple previously raced under the Supplier Pipeline banner, followed by Merrell.

“It’s a little bit more of a mature sport,” said Denise McHale of the couple’s return to the circuit.

“There’s going to be some young triathletes that will be faster than us, but after two or three days in a race ... that’s something you have to go through to know what it feels like. We have some work ahead of us to get back to where we were, but that’s coming.”

Reached this morning in Sacramento, Calif., Team Tecnu manager Doug Judson said he is “absolutely thrilled to have the McHales on board this year.”

Judson said the intangibles the Carcross couple brings to the table are invaluable – and hard to find.

“They’ve shown over their racing careers that they are a power couple, extremely competitive, and have that very much-needed trait of willingness to suffer for their teammates,” Judson told the Star.

“That was the biggest draw in wanting to add them to the team ... that’s a trait that not very many people have.”

The McHales will backbone a team that also includes Colorado’s Jon Brown and one more yet-to-be-named teammate. Denise McHale will be the lone female on the squad.

Despite a complete overhaul of his team roster, Judson has high hopes for the 2016 season that will culminate with the world championships in Australia in November.

Last year, Team Tecnu finished eighth out of 42 teams at the world championships in Brazil – a final placing Judson referred to as “just not good enough.”

Roster changes followed.

Judson was put in contact with the McHales after a conversation with Bob Miller, regarded as Canada’s most successful international racer.

“It’s hard in this sport to revamp a team,” Judson acknowledged. “You either start completely over and groom people ... or you go out and find the experience.”

The 2016 roster will be an old-school group of like-minded people with the same goals, he added.

“Adventure racing is one of the very few sports in the world where the more experience you have, the better you are. ... They may have slowed down a step, but now they know how to race smarter and more efficiently.”

Team Tecnu has finished as high as third at the world championships. Judson hopes his new Yukon content will give him a shot at a world title.