Iditablog.com – Iditarod 2012 News & Coverage

at 4:44 Lance Mackey passed his last checkpoint before becoming an Iditarod Champion.

Look for Mackey to arrive in Nome around 7pm-ish

In the attached video, Paul Gebhardt leaves White Mountain after his 8 hour layover in second position. Can he catch Lance Mackey?

I’m here at the checkpoint at White Mountain where Paul Gephardt, Martin Buser, Zach Steer and now Jeff King are all waiting and resting during their mandatory 8 hour layover. Paul stands to leave this checkpoint in just about 15 minutes, and will most likely arrive into Nome in second place later this evening. The most real race is now going to be for third place, with Martin Buser and Zach Steer coming in just 15 minutes apart. Steer told me that he is going to push his dogs into Nome trying to place as high as possible, but Martin can be very elusive. They left the previous checkpoint of Elim just about an hour apart and Zach had a little bit of a faster pace. Zach couldn’t be happier even if he does come in fourth, in Anchorage at the start of the race Steer was one of the mushers hoping to place in the top twenty, he was so impressed with his team he said, that early in the race he changed his goals to a top 10 finish, and now he is looking at finishing 3rd or 4th.

Jeff King’s team is finally looking a bit better than they did in Unalakleet, I wouldn’t be surprised if he tried to make up the 2 hours that he is behind Martin and try for 3rd place himself. Ed Iten could also be a contender, he has been known to make dramatic pushes into Nome.

Of course, the big story is still all about Lance Mackey, he left White Mountain just as my plane arrived around 9:40 this morning. Lance not only will become the first musher to ever win two long distance races in the same year (he won his third consecutive Yukon Quest, another 1,000 mile race two weeks ago), but Mackey will also become the third member of his family to take home a championship.

Paul Gephardt described his Iditarod career in the phrase “always a bridesmaid, never a bride” coming in second in 2000, and in the top ten four other times.

It will be later this afternoon/evening when we can expect to see Lance in Nome, it quickest anyone has ever made it from White Mountain to Nome is 10 hours, average is somewhere around 11 or 12.

View photos of White Mountain (here)

I’m headed into White Mountain this morning, look for photos this afternoon!

Lance Mackey widened the gap between himself and Paul Gebhardt. Lance Mackey, now into White Mountain as of 1:30 this morning is in a really good position to win this year’s Iditarod Sled Dog Race. Once Mackey got into White Mountain he started his mandatory 8 hour layover, making it impossible for another musher to leave before him. Paul Gebhardt got into the western Alaska village checkpoint three hours later, at 4:15am, making him the only real threat to Lance’s victory. Other mushers contending for 10 ten spots this year includes surprise phenom Zach Steer, and former 4 time Champions Jeff King & Martin Buser. For a long time it looked like we were going to have a record tying 5th Iditarod champion this year with King & Buser leading the race for much of the trail, however even though Jeff King arrived into Unalakleet first on Sunday, he left last out of the lead pack four, and with a team that was more tired than others, was never able to recover and overtake Gebhardt or Mackey. King is now looking at a potential 5th place finish, but he is going to have to fight Iditarod veterans Ed Iten, Ken Anderson, John Baker and Mitch Seavey.

Coming into this year’s race many claimed it was the most competitive field ever in race history, with multiple 4 time champions and a handful of mushers who have never won before, but are still very good this year’s title was not going to be handed over very easily to any one musher. Tough trail conditions caused injuries to a record number of mushers, forcing Iditarod legends Doug Swingley & DeeDee Jonrowe to scratch. Who knows what we would be seeing right now if those to had been able to continue on, but all we can do now is wait for a winner to arrive into Nome, probably around 8 or 9pm this evening.

Is the pack separating, or are Mackey & Gebhardt getting ready to burn out?

Paul Gebhardt left Koyuk just about 20 minutes after race leader Lance Mackey, however Mackey was able to get a nice 3 hour rest and Gebhardt stopped just long enough to feed his dogs & grab a cup of coffee from the Koyuk checkpoint. Martin Buser arrived just about an hour after those two left, but decided to stick around a while and rest his dogs. Also coming in for a rest is Zack Steer who passed up Jeff King while King was resting in Shaktoolik.

Sunday afternoon King arrived first into Unalakleet, a lead that didn’t last long as three other competitors arrived within an hour, and out of those four King ended up leaving last.

From Koyuk mushers head West to Elim. It should be Tueday sometime when we will start to see mushers arrive into White Mountian where they will be required to take an 8 hour layover before the final stretch into Nome.

Paul Gebhardt was the fourth musher to arrive into Unalakleet this afternoon but after 4 hours of rest, he was the first to leave. Lance Mackey, who was the second to arrive out of the lead pack four got up from his nap first and went outside to start working on his sled before heading out of town for the next checkpoint of Shaktoolik. Lance took his time after he got up, milling around the checkpoint talking with locals, and even taking a few minutes to watch footage of himself as it was being edited for the versus tv network. Paul got up next and was quicker at getting his team ready. Martin Buser and Jeff king left just a little after the first two, all four of them left within an hour of each other.

Both Jeff King & Martin Buser are hoping to win their 5th Iditarod, a number that would tie the current record. Meanwhile, Lance Mackey & Paul Gebhardt are looking to win their 1st, and if you ask Jeff King, it might not be him winning that would be the best story:

(audio interview: “To tell you the truth, i very much want to win this, but if I don’t, I hope Lance does because its a real magical story, and uh.. I think it would be dull if one of us would win it four times, or 5 times as opposed to someone was not supposed to have won it, who wants it that bad….who has a magical run. Ok, there’s a fairy tale ending that doesn’t involve me as much. But thats one of two scenarios I hope plays out over the next two days” – Jeff King)

One thing that we do know is that normally its not to hard to predict a winner at this point in the race, but right now with a top four coming in and leaving so close together….its going to be a tight race all the way to Nome.

On the Iditarod Trail, I’m Josh Rogers

In the attached video, Martin Buser arrives into Unalakleet and feeds his dogs.

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Video of Lance preparing his dogs for a nice rest in Unalaklet.