Gebhardt didn’t rest until Galena, King is the man to beat and Swingley isn’t happy about it.

So, yesterday I reported that Paul Gebhardt was probably going to take his 24-hour layover (which can be taken anywhere on the trail) in Cripple, where he was going to enjoy his “first musher to the Yukon” award well, there was another required layover, an 8-hour layover that must be taken somewhere on the Yukon, and Gebhardt took his in Cripple and pushed onto Galena for the 24, and that made him one of the last mushers in the entire race to take his day long rest.

Looking at the standings, Paul Gebhardt is still in the number one position, but the fact that he is taking a mandatory rest at the moment means that he isn’t really the race leader. Jeff King is the race leader, and has about a 5 hour lead on Doug Swingley.

With Gebhardt, King, and soon Swingley & DeeDee Jonrowe all in Galena with layover requirements out of the way, we will start to see some real strategy on when mushers sprint, and when they take it easy. Doug Swingley has already said the he likes running this part of the race in 80 mile chunks, and maybe he can get a 100 mile run out of his team without exhausting them to much. Another factor that could soon become detrimental to the mushers once they hit the Unalakleet & the Bering Sea coast (probably around Sunday) is a big storm that is on it’s way. I was talking to some friends in Nome today who told me they expect the race to slow down quite a bit pretty soon due to some terrible storms that are expected to come into play Sunday night and Monday.

All we can do is wait and see.

P.S. I’m working on a little piece that I should have finished later Saturday afternoon that talks about Jeff King & Doug Swingley and why Iditarod fans love following these two Who do you enjoy following and why? Leave me a comment…

Posted by admin on Saturday, March 11th, 2006 at 1:20 am.