At 8PM CST Josh Cadzow has about a half hour to go on the mandatory six hour stop in Circle before he hits the trail back to Central and the finish. He left Central about 3 hours before Ava, so he is sitting on a comfortable lead. The sky is clear and there is a nearly full moon, so it should be a good run.

These are the official standings at 10PM, but they don’t update the 300 very often.

At Circle
1. Josh Cadzow (52)
2. Rob Cooke (54)
3. Ava Lindner (55)
Beyond Central
4. Ed Abrahamson (58)
5. Luan Marques (51)
6. Jimmy Lebling (53)
7. Blake Matray (57)
At Central
8. Cindy Abbot (56)

Rob picked up more than an hour on Ava, due in some part to having 10 dogs versus Ava’s 8, on the trail to Circle. If Josh doesn’t have any ‘adventures’ on the trail, he should win handily.

Lots of reordering today, but first a correction. The start differential was adjusted at the first 4-hour stop at Mile 101 or Central, and the current positions are real time. Last year they waited until Dawson.

Mike Ellis had to scratch at Central because of shoulder injuries in a fall at the foot of Eagle Summit. The most most beautiful dogs in the race [show quality purebred Siberian Huskies] are out. [Ronn Murray Photography on Facebook has a picture of the team at the start posted on his ‘Wall’.]

Misha Pedersen lost a half day waiting for an ‘escape artist’ to return to the team at Eagle Summit, but she is racing again.

Maren Bradley did not scratch, as had been reported earlier, but is still racing.

At 11PM CST:

At Slaven’s Roadhouse
1 Brent Sass (10)
2 Hugh Neff (6)
3 Allen Moore (1)
4 Abbie West (21)
5 Sonny Lindner (3)
6 Jake Berkowitz (13)^R
7 Lance Mackey (16)
8 Kristy Berington (2)^I
Beyond Circle
9 David Dalton (4)
10 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (17)^R
11 Kyla Durham (7)
At Circle
12 Gus Guenther (20)^R
13 Yuka Honda (19)^R
14 Paige Drobny (12)^R
15 Trent Herbst (22)^I
16 Jason Weitzel (9)^R
Beyond Central
17 Marcelle Fressineau (15)^R
18 Brian Wilmshurst (11)^R
19 Maren Bradley (23)^R
20 Michael Telpin (24)^R
21 Nikolay Ettyne (14)^R
22 Misha Pedersen (5)^R

These are the official standings. That means they are official, not that they are correct. Things jump around a lot as people decide to update the standings. This problem is especially bad in the back of the pack, as no one bothers to update those standings when the lead is changing.

The Mushers in bold are former winners of the Yukon Quest, the numbers in parentheses are their Bib numbers, the small “I” indicates a Quest rookie who has competed in the Iditarod, and the small “R” indicates a total rookie.

Note: This post will be updated during the day, and the map changed on all posts to reflect the current situation.

All posts on the Yukon Quest can be seen by selecting “Yukon Quest” from the Category box on the right sidebar.

The ABC reports the two year suspension of Alberto Contador of Spain from cycling and the loss of his 2010 Tour de France and 2011 Giro d’Italia wins. Contador will not be eligible for the Olympics or this year’s Tour.

They didn’t buy his story about the steroids being in the meat he was eating during the race.

Alberto, that is Mexico [and probably the US for all we know], not France. The French get upset with people who mess with their food [unlike the US where they get subsidies]

In the world of sled dog racing ‘The Eagle Bites’ –

Mike Ellis and his beautiful Siberian Huskies are out of the race. Coming down Eagle Mike leaned a little to far to steer away from some trees, and got slammed into an ice patch, separating his shoulder. He managed to pop his arm back into the socket, but there is no way he can care for the team with the pain involved, so he scratched at Central. Mike and Sue’s Siberians are acknowledged to be the best looking team in any race.

Dave Dalton is still in, but he got slammed into the ice and was winching from bruised ribs at Central. Water gets very hard below 32°.

Rookie Misha Pedersen had a different sort of problem – one of her team pulled a Houdini on Eagle to look around the neighborhood, and she was put on hold until the dog was located. The musher is responsible for the team, and you can’t check in without every dog that left the previous check point.

There were a lot of people repairing sleds after coming down Eagle Summit.

That’s all of the important sports news … 😈