Jessie Holmes on his way to White Mountain

Iditarod fans woke up to a surprise to see Jessie Holmes not already in White Mountain. With the lead the musher has over the next closest teams, Holmes chose to rest in Elim for three and a half hours before heading towards the mountains and the village of White Mountain. Holmes left the checkpoint several minutes before Matt Hall arrived.

Jessie Holmes has lead for most of the second half of the Iditarod, having what many consider to be the "magic ride". Even when things went apparently sideways for the musher, Jessie perservered and stayed with his plan and ran a seemingly flawless race. With about 80 miles left to go, it's still possible for Mother Nature to throw one or two more curveballs at Team Can't Stop, but for now it looks like Jessie is solidly taking home the title of Iditarod Champion.

Matt Hall is about twenty four miles behind the leader, and has also run an impressive race. Behind Hall, Paige Drobny is resting in Elim. Depending on when Paige and team leave the checkpoint, second place could be an exciting battle.

In the back of the pack current red lantern is now Jenny Roddewig mileage wise, she is the only team not in Kaltag. Calvin Daugherty had to take his mandatory rest in Kaltag and should be leaving in a few minutes with a well rested team. 

If Jessie makes it to White Mountain around 8:45am he will be able to leave by 4:45pm. It's a 77 mile jaunt to Nome from White Mountain and is normally run in 10-11 hours, so we could see a champion around 2am Friday morning. We'll know more once Holmes' team gets into the checkpoint.