We’re all waiting . Late last night Doug Swingley checked out of Rohn on his way to Nikolai, but less than an hour behind him was Jeff King and the rest of the top 7 follow within the hour. We’re sitting here at our computers waiting for another update to see who gets into Nikolai first, and who decides to spend some time resting there. The trail most of the mushers are on right now is some of the trickiest and toughest in the entire race. You’ve got the Alaskan range and many elevation changes. An hour isn’t that much of a lead in this area of the trail.

Doug Swingley is a four time champion, and Jeff King has won three times. Its been quite a number of years since we’ve seen these two go at it for the top slots in the Iditarod, since 2003 team Norway has been dominating the race, usually getting out ahead of the pack and staying there for most of the race, a strategy that Swingley told reporters he was going to attempt this year. The only representative from team Norway this year is Bjornar Andersen, who is currently in the 24th position about 9 hours behind Swingley, the current race leader.

There is still plenty of race to go, with plenty of changes in the top 25 ahead. We’ve got a few days before mushers start to take their 24 hour layover which plays huge in strategy, but I’m sure its on their minds right now…

Posted by admin on Tuesday, March 7th, 2006 at 12:01 pm.