Iditarod XXIV Underway
March 05, 2006

by Tyrell Seavey

Ultimate Iditarod's coverage of the 2006 Iditarod sponsored by:

My bags are pack, there’s plenty of snow. The dogs are barkin’ they’re ready to go. Ok, I admit it… trying to make a mushing song out of that old jet-plane ditty really is pathetic. I guess it just goes to show you how addicted we all are to this sport. I have spent a little time browsing through the Iditarod related forums of cabelasiditarod.com and sleddogcentral.com, wow. I though my dogs were tough but they have nothing on you dedicated fans. To show our appreciation for the continued support of all you dedicated fans Ultimate Iditarod will again provide as much comprehensive coverage as possible. The biggest challenge for us this year is a few slight technical difficulties i.e. I am in Montana and the Iditarod is in Alaska. But hey, I’m an Iditarod musher… since when did we allow little stuff like that to slow us down?

This year’s Iditarod features a smorgasbord of diversity in competitors, dogs and stories. The big question is “who is going to walk away this year’s big winner?” but there are a lot of other interesting subplots that will be developing along the way. Ultimate Iditarod will be focusing on Mitch Seavey, Dan Seavey, Cindy Gallea, Rachael Scdoris, and Rick Casillo this year.

I chose my father, Mitch, to win this year, simple as that, I decided he was going to win. The hard part now is going to be waiting the 8 days to see if I can say I told you so. We always say this, but this year’s mushers are the most competent and qualified group of racers any race trail has ever seen and any top finish is respectable. Dan is running our puppy team so he should be finishing in the mid-fifties with a big fast dog team. Cindy is going for it again this year and Nome should find her somewhere in the thirties with a big happy team. I think Rachael, and all of us, would be thrilled with a safe and successful trip to Nome regardless of placement in the pack. Casillo is more of a wild card. He is running a mixed group of Quest dogs and dogs from our bloodlines. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him run a conservative race and finish near the back but it wouldn’t be that big of a shock to me if things came together for him and he finished in the top twenty either. We will have to wait and see.

In the meantime stay tuned to Ultimate Iditarod as we keep you as up-to-date as possible. Both Jim and I will be traveling to Alaska in the next week to follow the race and we will be updating the site to let you guys know what is going on.