Strategies
10:15 p.m.
March 8, 2006

by Tyrell Seavey

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

Up to this point in the race the trail conditions have been warmer, slower and softer than most of the racers would have hoped for. These conditions may have been an advantage for the Montanan mushers (Swingley, Barron and Barron) who train in warm temperatures and soft sluggish trails regularly. According to my sources the temperature should continue dropping as the teams head north and may plummet into the -30 F range before the teams reach Ruby. How will this effect the racers? First, it will make them more cautious. It is no big deal to stop and rest on a particularly long run if the weather is good, but you have to be careful in the super cold temperatures. If you accidentally overextend your team in the cold you cannot simply pull over and rest a few hours, so teams have to be more calculated (which may be why some teams are holding longer than expected in Ophir). The cold will favor a better maintained and rested team since it takes more out of an athlete to sustain in the cold weather. On the other hand, if the temperatures only go down to say 0 F it may solidify the trails enough to help the speedy teams out without being cold enough to hinder anybodies progress.

As I mentioned before, I am anxious to see the order as the teams leave Cripple. How the teams fare over the next run will tell me a lot. One thing that can be determined without a crystal ball is that Swingley will leave Cripple with a lead, probably a big lead. I doubt he can be knocked out of the front, barring a storm or similar hang up, before the Bering Sea Coast. Swingley has traditionally been a strong team on the Yukon River and I would foresee him padding his lead over the next 300 miles. Am I loosing faith in the Alaskan racers? Absolutely not. Swingley has never been pushed on the Coast before. In all the years he won he never had an Iten or a Seavey skipping both Shaktoolik and Elim or the equivalent and baring down on him. In fact, it was usually the opposite with Swingley having time to kill on the Coast.

Mackey, King, Zirkle and Royer, to name a few, have opted to take their 24 hour rests in Takotna. This may be due to the poor trail. Last year Bjornar and Swingley gained substantial time on the run to the Iditarod checkpoint by resting sooner and taking advantage of the trail improvements afforded by the teams traveling ahead of them. Unless the Ophir stats are very delinquent it appears that Seavey, Barron, Barron, Iten etc are going to 24 there. When the sun sets tomorrow over the Yukon River we will know for the first time how everybody lines up next to one another.