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Ultimate Iditarod's EXCLUSIVE 2005 Iditarod Coverage Update 5--Teams
Still Neck and Neck as They Begin to Cross Alaska's Interior
By Ultimate Iditarod's Jim Gallea Well, everybody, we've got ourselves quite a dog race here!!! Robert Sorlie's early strategy of longer runs separated by shorter rests doesn't seem to have taken the spark out of his team. Sorlie was the first musher into Takotna at just after midnight after some very nice runs across the Farewell Burn and the swamps that dot Alaska's Interior. Ramy Brooks pulled in second, about an hour and a half later. I am guessing that Sorlie may take his mandatory 24-hour layover here. Norwegian Kjetil Backen took his 24-hour layover in Takotna last year and went on to finish a very strong third; and, if memory serves at this hour of the night, I'm pretty sure that both Sorlie and Backen took their 24-hour layovers at Takotna during their rookie runs in 2002. Remember, mushers get to choose where they take this long rest, and Takotna is a popular place to stop because of the wonderful people and terrific food. Mushers don't count on getting food along the trail, so they send out their own dog and human food before the race begins. But you can bet that most mushers don't think about touching their trail rations when Jan Newton and the gang at Takotna will cook up everything from a T-Bone steak to a huge platter of hotcakes, eggs, and sausage at any hour of the day or night. It's quite an operation, especially when you consider that Takotna is home to only 70 residents! Don't let Sorlie and Brooks fool you. They don't have the lead by much, and there's a huge pack of very competitive dog mushers nipping at their heels. The next eight mushers were within two hours of each other leaving Nikolai, about 70 miles before Takotna. And behind that, another group of well over a dozen mushers is within striking distance. For being over 400 miles in to this year's Iditarod, there sure are a lot of teams jockeying for the top spots. A lot of racing lies between here and Nome. And, by the sounds of the reports coming in to us here, the trail is going to be pretty soft and slow going as mushers move beyond Takotna and head for the half way checkpoint of Iditarod, about 115 miles away. What this means for all the mushers, we'll have to wait and see. But I can promise you one thing: This race is going to be a fun one to watch right down to the wire. Right now, the big question is where mushers are going to take their 24-hour layover. It's going to be really hard to know who has the lead until all the teams complete this required rest. As for myself, I'm going to get a few hours' shuteye and then start making my way (by airplane, not dog team) to the checkpoint of Eagle Island on the Yukon River. I'm going to help with the race as the teams pass through the checkpoint, and, hopefully, give a shout out to everyone is cyberspace once in a while. Rick Casillo is going to keep the home fires burning on the web page, so be sure to keep checking in for the latest. Happy Trails! Jim Gallea |
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