Daniel Vetsch for Ultimate Iditarod

AT THE FRONT OF THE RACE
THE 24 HOUR BREAK

"Mitch Seavey as he travels to Nulato. His team is traveling down the trail smoothly.

Traveling down the Yukon River just outside Galena is DeeDee Jonrowe

AT THE FRONT OF THE RACE

Continuing to lead the race down the Yukon River is Norwegian musher RobertSorlie. The ability of his team has impressed onlookers all the way downthe trail. He takes longer runs than most; many over six hours. He alsotakes shorter rests. Still, his team cruises down the trail, making it lookeasy. Yesterday when he went through Nulato, his dogs looked energized andperky with no hesitation as they checked out and headed down the trail to Kaltag.

However, Sorlie is not free of the other competitors yet. There areseveral strong experienced teams hot on his heels and they surely don'tintend to make Sorlie's job any easier. Currently Jeff King and Rick Swenson have taken up the chase and are on their way to Eagle Island. King still has fifteen dogs and Swenson sixteen, which are good-sized teams for this point in the race. Whether or not the extra dogs can convert in to more speed is still to be seen.


THE 24 HOUR BREAK

The question that is now looming over the competitors is where are they going to take their 24-hour break. It is mandatory that every musher stops at the checkpoint of his choosing for a full 24-hour rest. Most of the frontrunners will declare their extended rest soon but it is still unknown as to where.

In recent years it has become customary for the top competitors to go as far as possible before taking their 24. This strategy was first successful for Doug Swingley when he was repeatedly winning the race and now many of the mushers have followed his lead and are doing the same. It is then a safe bet to say that Sorlie and King and Swenson will push on down the Yukon before declaring their mandatory rests. So for now these top teams are racing to get to their prospective checkpoints and then they will take a long break.

Because the race trail for 2003 has never before in its entirety been travelled, there are many unknowns. So far the trail has been overall hard, fast, and relatively smooth. This has made for fast times and large teams even as we get farther into the race.