Iditarod 2016 – Day 6
For the first time since the start of the race we have an undisputed leader – Brent Sass. Jeff King is the only one of the top 50 who hasn’t completed a 24-hour, Brent really is the leader without an asterisk.
Aliy beat Brent to Galena by an hour, but he blew through to re-take the lead.
It looks Aliy is taking her 8-hour. Dallas has already taken his at Ruby, so the real racing will begin.
Update at 9:00PM CST:
Beyond Galena
1 Brent Sass (32)
At Galena
2 Aliy Zirkle (13)
3 Mitch Seavey (19)
4 Noah Burmeister (39)
5 Robert Sørlie (37)
6 John Baker (66)
7 Dallas Seavey (16)
Beyond Ruby
8 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (31)
9 Wade Marrs (33)
10 Nicolas Petit (12)
11 Ray Redington Jr (18)
12 Jeff King (61)
13 Scott Smith (62)
14 Kelly Maixner (17)
At Ruby
15 Hugh Neff (70)
16 Michelle Phillips (30)
17 Paul Gebhardt (55)
18 Peter Kaiser (11)
19 Ken Anderson (81)
20 Richie Diehl (38)
21 Ralph Johannessen (77)
22 Jessie Royer (3)
23 Sigrid Ekran (27)
24 Jason Campeau (24)
25 Ketil Reitan (6)
26 Travis Beals (28)
27 Rick Casillo (20)
28 Mats Pettersson (36)
29 Geir Idar Hjelvik (79)R
30 Linwood Fiedler (41)
31 Justin Savidis (46)
Beyond Cripple
32 Jason Mackey (67)
33 Nathan Schroeder (4)
34 Lars Monsen (68)R
35 Katherine Keith (85)
36 Allen Moore (5)
37 Cim Smyth (10)
38 Ed Stielstra (50)
39 Cody Strathe (59)Q
40 Jodi Bailey (14)
41 Paige Drobny (75)
42 Dag Torulf Olsen (35)R
43 Martin Buser (48)
44 Kristy Berington (83)
45 Anna Berington (23)
46 Tore Albrigtsen (52)
At Cripple
47 Karin Hendrickson (76)
48 Ryan Redington (60)
49 Robert Redington (57)R
50 DeeDee Jonrowe (45)
51 Michael Williams, Jr. (40)
52 Monica Zappa (8)
53 James Volek (15)
54 Sarah Stokey (71)R
55 Kristin Knight Pace (47)R
56 Robert Bundtzen (26)
57 Tim Pappas (64)R
Beyond Ophir
58 Ryne Olson (44)
59 Tom Jamgochian (78)R
60 Becca Moore (22)
61 Jim Lanier (51)
62 Scott Janssen (2)
63 Lisbet Norris (7)
64 Trent Herbst (58)
65 Lance Mackey (72)
66 Rob Cooke (56)
67 Noah Pereira (21)R
68 Alan Eischens (54)
69 Melissa Owens Stewart (82)
70 Miriam Osredkar (65)R
71 Elliot Anderson (69)R
72 Matthew Failor (63)
At Ophir
73 Patrick Beall (53)R
Beyond Takotna
74 Billy Snodgrass (80)
75 Larry Daugherty (43)R
76 Mary Helwig (49)R
At Takotna
77 Cindy Gallea (73)
78 Kim Franklin (34)R
79 Kristin Bacon (42)R
Beyond McGrath
80 Ellen Halverson (29)
The Mushers in bold are former winners of the Iditarod, while italics indicates Yukon Quest winners. The numbers in parentheses are their Bib numbers. The small “R” indicates a total rookie, while the small “Q” indicates an Iditarod rookie who has completed a Yukon Quest.
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.
This post will be updated during the day, and the map changed on all posts to reflect the current situation.
All posts on the Iditarod can be seen by selecting “Iditarod” from the Category box on the right sidebar or clicking on the Sled Dog graphic.
3 comments
Wow, Lance Mackey really made an uncharacteristic mistake. You may have already read the story, but if not here’s the story: Back to Ophir
After all the health issues and problems he’s had in the last few years, I had hoped he would be able to make a good showing this year. He’s been slowly building his team and taking it relatively easy with them the past several years. The Iditarod always has a few wrong turns, it’s just surprising with his experience that he got caught out this way. Just goes to show that anyone can get in trouble on this trail.
It may be the year for Brent Sass. According to the current race standings, he left Cripple with Aliy about 2.5 hrs behind him. No one else has left Cripple but those two.
Aliy is realling looking good this year. They are giving daily updates on her progress at the spkenneldoglog.blogspot.com site. They said she blew through Cripple last night and the dogs looked really good. Apparently it was noted that she picked up a bale of straw, so she’s going to camp out on the way to Ruby.
I’m curious, what is the benefit of camping out? There must be something to it because you’d think the “human” animal would prefer a warm place to sleep. Oh, I just read further down that the dogs get a better rest away from the other teams.
I meant to say that they are out of Ruby at this point. Aliy is now on the Yukon River according to a new post on the site. Allen left a dog in Cripple, but they don’t know why at this point.
Ruby is the first checkpoint on the Yukon River and they will essentially be following the river until Kaltag when they head for the coast.
Brent has had a few tough years – a concussion that cost him a win on the Quest, and then the iPod debacle last year at the Iditarod. I think he believes this is his year. Aliy has been so close, so often, that she really wants this.
Camping allows more sleep for the team and keeps other teams from knowing where you are. A lot of mushers aren’t really ‘people people’. Many live in the North because there aren’t a lot of people around. Like you, they appreciate solitary travel. 🙂
Another factor is that it conceals your run/rest balance. When all you have is in and out at checkpoints, you don’t really know how rested or tired a team is. If you could see the GPS for the other teams, you would adjust to their patterns.
One of Lance’s greatest strengths is also a weakness – he creates a plan and sticks with it no matter what. If it is the correct plan for the realities of the trail, his team will win. This time he was wrong, and he waited too long to adjust. The good news is that based on the first few days, his dogs will run, unlike the past couple of years. Next year this team will be a real contender.