Sébastien Dos Santos Borges has been the candidate for La Lanterne Rouge, but he has picked up his pace.

Paige Drobny and Ed Hopkins appear to be vying for the 4th place. As usual, it’s nice to see one of the women in the top spots.

But there is still several teams yet to go over those two nasty mountains you told me about. Right now Ben Good and Gaetan Pierrard are bringing up the rear. They’re only a couple of miles apart at this point, but who knows what the two mountains will bring about. It looks like about half of the teams are still heading up that first mountainside.

This is why a four-hour lead wasn’t a sure thing earlier. It has been really cold in the Yukon River valley which is the trail from Eagle to Central and small things can become big problems. Brent has been having problems which is why Matt caught up with him. At really cold temperatures the puppies’ survival instincts take over and they want to lay down and circle rather than run into the wind. The affected dogs may have been leaders, and without leaders there is no point. I think that Hank may have had to drop leaders which would explain his slow progress.