Posts from — February 2012

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 … 😈

Australia has massive flooding in the East and drought-driven wildfires in the West with tropical storms clipping the North.

Europe has been thrown into a deep freeze for a week, with two to four inches of snow falling on London.

If that wasn’t bad enough – there is Invest 90 down around Cuba that looks like a candidate to become a tropical depression … in the first week of bloody February.

Global climate change is here, and people better start making their plans for what they will do when where they live changes, or, possibly, disappears. This is not the time to look for more hydrocarbons to burn.

The mid-distance teams are making good time, but they are probably wearing down at this point. That climb up Rosebud wears out teams and mushers, because you don’t get to ride, or even run behind the sled – you have to push.

Update 11PM CST:

At Central
1. Josh Cadzow (52)
2. Ava Lindner (55)
Beyond Mile 101
3. Rob Cooke (54)
At Mile 101
4. Luan Marques (51)
Beyond Chena Hot Springs
5. Jimmy Lebling (53)
6. Cindy Abbot (56)
7. Ed Abrahamson (58)
8. Blake Matray (57)

Josh has a lot of races behind him, but Luan Marques is looking good for a total rookie from Brazil. Rob Cooke has obviously been working seriously on his mushing.

Ava Linder is down to 8 dogs, and that isn’t good. The race runs out to Circle and then back to Central for the finish.

The leading teams are over Rosebud and have to decide to take the 4-hour mandatory stop at Mile 101, or wait until they get to Central. I assume that most will stay at 101 and rest after the climb.

The descent down Eagle is a test for the musher, as s/he must keep the sled from interfering with the dogs.

Update at 7:30PM CST:

Beyond Central
1 Brent Sass (10)
2 Allen Moore (1)
3 Abbie West (21)
At Central
4 Hugh Neff (6)
5 Sonny Lindner (3)
6 Kristy Berington (2)^I
7 Lance Mackey (16)
8 David Dalton (4)
9 Mike Ellis (18)
10 Jake Berkowitz (13)^R
Beyond Mile 101
11 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (17)^R
12 Kyla Durham (7)
13 Gus Guenther (20)^R
14 Yuka Honda (19)^R
15 Trent Herbst (22)^I
At Mile 101
16 Paige Drobny (12)^R
17 Marcelle Fressineau (15)^R
18 Jason Weitzel (9)^R
19 Misha Pedersen (5)^R
20 Brian Wilmshurst (11)^R
21 Nikolay Ettyne (14)^R
22 Michael Telpin (24)^R

OK, Now we have the current status of Maren Bradley (23)^R – she either scratched at Chena Hot Springs or is sitting at Mile 101 in the race ahead of Nikolay and Michael. Both versions are up on the Standings board. The GPS says she is at Mile 101. This is a volunteer effort, so they are going to have problems like this.

I’m concerned about the rising temperatures. Temperatures above freezing cause problems for the dogs and the trail, and temperatures in the 20s yield wet snow which is a pain to deal with.

Note: According to GPS live tracking Michael Telpin has been at Chena Hot Springs for more than 8 hours, the last GPS report. It is probable that everyone is out of the checkpoint.

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 race started on time, 6PM CST [3PM AKST] but only 8 of the 9 teams are apparently racing:

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

I’ll have to wait to see if they say what happened to Peg Harpham (59).

Unlike the 14 dogs on the YQ 1000, there are 12 dogs on the 300 teams. This is an additional measure to ensure that the two groups don’t interfere with each other.

The lead team musher, Luan Marques, is a Brazilian pet shop owner. Rob Cooke moved from the UK to Canada to race Siberian Huskies. Ava Linder is the daughter of Sonny Linder, the winner of the first Quest before she was born. Blake Matray is easing back into the sport after failing to finish the 2009 Iditarod.

The YQ 300 is a qualifier for both the Quest and the Iditarod, but I would have found another race. The section of the trail from Fairbanks to Circle is a nasty piece of work, even in the ‘good’ direction.

You have to make the double summit climb up Rosebud and then Eagle, and then you descend into the ‘deep freeze’. Between Central and Circle there is about 30 miles of trail on Birch Creek which is the coldest section of the entire trail. Veterans expect that section to be at least 15° colder than Central, without a wind.

That section will be even colder this year because Carl Cochrane, who provided a stop at his cabin on Birch Creek since the start of the Quest, died in June at 77. No one knows if the caretaker who lives there now will welcome visitors.

The teams started leaving at 2PM CST [11AM AKST] with 3 minute intervals between teams. Kurt Reich (8)^R was a no-show, but no one is sure why at this point.

The initial order is:

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

It will be several hours before anyone reaches the first checkpoint but you can follow them with GPS tracking using the ‘Live Tracking’ link in the Quest area of my right sidebar.

The Quest 300 will start later this evening with 9 teams. The 300 miles of this race in even years from Fairbanks is over the worst of the Quest’s trail, ending at Circle. That reality and the bad economy are really keeping participation down. Providing 14 dogs with an of 12,000 calories of food apiece every day on the trail really adds up.

Update below the fold:

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When Caterpillar took over the Progress Rail Services, Corp. of London, Ontario, a manufacturer of diesel electric locomotives, there were all kinds for assurances that nothing much would change and everyone would prosper.

Then the union contract at the plant expired on January 1^st when the union failed to agree to the company’s demands for a 50% pay cut for workers. The workers were locked out.

Immediately following a “Right to Work” law in Indiana, Caterpillar closed the Ontario plant and announced that it was hiring in Muncie, Indiana.

I can see why Caterpillar would do this. their record profits might not continue, and the workers don’t do anything but make the products that generate those profits with skills that require years to master.

I feel certain that in addition to changing their laws, the state of Indiana won’t burden Caterpillar with any tax bills, because they are ‘job creators’, even if the jobs come with no benefits and burger-flipping wages for skilled jobs.

Slavery by any other name…

This was the weather statement for the area around the Mile 101 checkpoint for today:

The Winter Weather Advisory is now in effect until 6 am akst
Saturday.

* Location… Steese Highway summits.

* Winds… southwest gusting to 40 mph.

* Wind chills… 50 below.

* Visibility… near zero in blowing snow.

* Snow… several inches accumulation.

Fortunately things will calm down before tomorrow. Oh, the checkpoint is at the mile 101 marker on the Steese Highway between those summits.

There will be new snow for the start, which is not a given in Alaska. It doesn’t really snow all that much during the winter … it is too cold.

The MSNBC link to a decade long study on the physiology of sled dogs is still good, and a useful primer for anyone new to the sport.

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You Called?

When’s dinner?

[Editor: Excise [X-Size needs to do some Xercise] decided to pose at the best possible time at the best possible place just as I was taking the camera out for a feral cat picture hunt during the early afternoon.

Friday Ark

In Memoriam

Rook had to say goodbye to his brown tabby, Quiz, this week.

The Susan G. Komen Foundation has really fallen off the barn into the manure pile with their handling of the cut off of funds to Planned Parenthood.

Their disaster control couldn’t have been any worse than if they had announced the introduction of a pink Edsel, New Coke in a pink can, or a Walther P-22 with a pink slide … oh, wait, the handgun deal is real.

Mother Jones wants to know why they haven’t stopped funding Penn State if they aren’t going to fund organizations under investigation?

Planned Parenthood has repeatedly been investigated over the funding of abortions, and nothing has ever been found, because they are very aware of the political animosity and very careful about the accounting. Attempting to claim that this latest waste of taxpayers’ money to again investigate this issue by another whacko Congresscritter is a serious investigation is a matter best handled by a pathological liar like the Joe Isuzu character. The head of the Foundation just can’t lie believably.

It’s Groundhog Day and some of the militant marmots object to being disturbed.

These are the two dozen starters. The little “I” indicates a Quest Rookie who has completed an Iditarod, while the “R” marks total Rookies in long distance races. The two mushers who are bolded are former winners of the Quest.

Kristy Berington^I
Jake Berkowitz^R
Maren Bradley^R
David Dalton
Paige Drobny^R
Kyla Durham
Mike Ellis
Nikolay Ettyne^R
Marcelle Fressineau^R
Gus Guenther^R
Trent Herbst^I
Yuka Honda^R
Joar Leifseth Ulsom^R
Sonny Lindner
Lance Mackey
Allen Moore
Hugh Neff
Misha Pedersen^R
Kurt Reich^R
Brent Sass
Michael Telpin^R
Jason Weitzel^R
Abbie West
Brian Wilmshurst^R

[Read more →]

February 1, 2003

Commander:
Rick Douglas Husband, Colonel, USAF

Pilot:
William C. McCool, Commander, USN

Payload Commander:
Michael P. Anderson, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF

Mission Specialist:
Kalpana Chawla, PhD
David M. Brown, MD, Captain, USN
Laurel Blair Salton Clark, MD, Captain, USN

Payload Specialist:
Ilan Ramon, Colonel, Israel Air Force