Snow & Stop Overs
Bjornar Andersen (18) of Team Norway has scratched at Takotna where he was in 10th place. His dogs made better than 7mph coming in, so I’ll have to wait to find out the story.
Update: the ADN reports that Andersen was injured in the piece of work that is called a trail between Rohn and Nikolai, but stayed in the race until it became obvious that his condition was getting worse. He was dragged after getting bounced off the sled and hit a stump, probably causing internal injuries.
The trail beyond Ophir is buried under snow, so the group headed towards Iditarod are going to have a hard slog, breaking trail. Normally the lead will switch off a lot as dogs get really tired jumping more than running. The group that Martin Buser passed in Takotna have finished their 24 hour stop and have to move on, while he rests in Ophir. There’s a reason he has won the Iditarod 4 times and holds the record for the fastest race ever.
Current Top Ten [2pm CDT]:
1 Aaron Burmeister (56)
2 Hugh Neff (55)
3 Lance Mackey (47)
4 Sebastian Schnuelle (34)
5 Ken Anderson (54)
6 Jeff King (41)
7 Mitch Seavey (21)
8 Paul Gebhardt (15)
9 John Baker (44)
10 Martin Buser (33
