The 2008 Breakdown

After a nice, leisurely 11-mile fun-run this morning, mushers, their handlers, and hundreds of tourists are right now getting checked into their Anchorage area hotels, or spending the night at a friend’s home, getting ready for the hour long drive out to Willow Alaska, the new official restart location of the Iditarod. Saturday morning’s activities are sometimes confusing for those who are new to the race, and most people assume that the Iditarod starts in Anchorage. In reality all day on Saturday, mushers are meeting fans, checking gear, seeing friends, and giving dozens of interview during the party-like atmosphere in downtown Anchorage. Each musher runs an 11 mile course that zigs and zags all over the Anchorage area, through neighborhoods, into parks, and on-top of a highway overpass. Thousands of fans from all over the country come out and line the trail to see each musher up close and personal in Alaska’s busiest city. There is no competition on Saturday, nothing to stress over, and the realism of the following day’s events are usally pretty far from a team’s mind.

Then comes Sunday, and the official restart. This event had been held closer to Anchorage, in the Iditarod office’s hometown of Wasilla, a nearby “suburb” of Anchorage, however over the last 5 years or so the weather has forced an almost regular detour to someplace further out of town, that had more snow…and finally after many years of relocating Willow Lake has this year named as the official restart location for every Iditarod from here on out. Teams will leave in two minute intervals just like the day before, only from here is where things start to count. The next checkpoint of Yentna Station is about 54 miles away and is where those in the lead will attempt to keep their position and where sometimes an 19 year old rookie can pull ahead to be technically, and briefly “winning the Iditarod”.

Predicting the Iditarod each year, or trying to choose a winner is something that gets continually harder as the field gets bigger, and starts to include bigger and bigger names. Its not just a one man show around here any longer, and your list of top ten contenders usually is also a list of ten people who have a really good shot at winning this year’s Iditarod. As a review, lets cover some of the big names for beginners to watch for this year:

Lance Mackey, the 2007 defending champion is about to learn how hard it is to win back-to-back Iditarod’s. The four-time consecutive Yukon Quest winner arrived at the Whitehorse finish-line in first place just 10 days ago and is now seeking to recreate his magical journey from last year that thrust him into Iditarod history books as the first musher to win both major races in the same year.

Jeff King, the four-time Iditarod champion looks to win a record-tying 5th championship this year, and has the talk and the team to do so. King was nipping on Mackey’s heels last year when he wasn’t leading the race himself. Jeff is the businessman of the Iditarod having turned his previous victories into sponsorship deals with some of mushing’s biggest supporters.

Paul Gebhardt, coming in a tight second last year to Lance Mackey was the closest that this veteran musher has come to Iditarod victory in career of attempts. Gebhardt usually has the will and has the strategy to led the race for first half and will continue to look for ways to continue his lead up the Bering Sea coast in 2008.

Kjetil Backen, back in 2002 Backen and his Norwigen mushing partner Robert Sorlie came to the Iditarod and changed the race forever. Both mushers came to learn the race and learn what it would take to win. Sorlie came back in 2003 and put the strategies to work and come home as the first Iditarod Champion from another country. Kjetil attempted a win in 2004 however after leading much of the race, a tragic dog death in the last legs of the race changed everything and led to a third place finish for team Norway. 2005 Sorlie came back in an attempt to re-gain the title, and left with his second historic Iditarod championship. This will be the first Iditarod that Backen has attempted since he came so close in 2004, and as the “brains” behind his teammates two wins, he is sure to be a force in this year’s race.

Martin Buser, another four-time Iditarod winner seeks the elusive fifth championship that only Rick Swenson has ever been able to achieve. Buser is another musher that always has surprises up his sleeve, never count this amazing legend out of the race, and don’t be surprised to see Martin at the top of the pack.

There are so many more names that could end up taking this thing home with them in just over a week from today. We will continue to break down the contenders over the next day or so as the race gets started. I also want to talk about some of the notable rookies in this year’s race, and legendary mushers returning to the Iditarod this year….stay tuned!