In a finish that surprised really no one, Nicolas Petit and his team of 9 dogs stormed the finish of the Copper Basin 300 at 11:48am Monday to take his fourth title. According to KCAM Radio, Nic is the first musher to ever win four Copper Basin races in a row. Nic left Chistochina with 10 dogs on the line, but had to put one in his sled due to the dog tiring early in the run. Due to Covid-19 there will not be an awards ceremony and the teams are going to receive any prizes at the finish. Also due to Covid-19 there are no large crowds to welcome them.They done did the thing! pic.twitter.com/Tcd4MndsyG
— Jess ☞ Black Lives Matter (@fartsock) January 11, 2021
Monday, January 11, 2021
Nicolas Petit is your 2021 Copper Basin 300 champion
With 7 mile lead Petit looks to finish strong
Nicolas Petit at the ReStart of Iditarod 47 March 3, 2019. |
Overnight three more teams scratched from the race, including Shaynee Traska who was one of the leaders of the chase pack yesterday. It was reported by fans who watched over night that Shaynee left Meier's Lake and ran a few miles before turning back and returning to the checkpoint. There's no official report on any of the race scratches, so we will only know what happened if the musher(s) decide to make a statement on their own social media pages. Scratching is a very emotional and personal decision for mushers and sometimes they remain silent. Jeff Reid and Allen Dunn also scratched last night at Meier's Lake.
ATAO kennel reports that the trail is not the best condition with a lot of sugar snow. Sugar Snow adds friction to the sled and also makes for a very unstable/soft trail which only gets worse the more teams go over it.
It does appear that Julie Ahrens did not complete her mandatory six hour plus differential and has had to take another 6+ rest in Chistochina. The rookie musher had a phenomenal race and should be very proud of what she and her team accomplished. Every team has made the differential mistake, it wouldn't be a "rookie mistake" if they hadn't. This was Ahren's first Iditarod qualifier and above all that is the goal.
The champion finish is always celebration worthy, but the true excitement comes from battle for placement. second place and fourth place look at being closely contended. Teams must give the right of way to the team coming up faster behind them UNTIL "no man's land" (typically the last mile to the finish) then it's every team for itself. Watching teams come in seconds after each other always gives for a fun little jump in excitement.
Get ready for an exciting afternoon of finishes, race fans. CB300 had announced they planned to go live for the finish and I believe the link will be shared on their website. You can also listen to the finish on KCAM online.
Sunday, January 10, 2021
Petit charges into lead over night
Nicolas Petit's team at the Ceremonial Start of Iditarod 48. March 7, 2020. |
Keeping Petit company is rookie Julie Ahren who is running a team of dogs belonging to Reality TV Star Jessie Holmes. Holmes is playing handler while Ahren runs the dogs and she has consistently stayed with the lead pack. Rounding out top three is Gunnar Johnson who is kind of a surprise through all of this and one wonders if he can keep the pace for the whole course. Johnson is running his Iditarod 2021 season with the goal of bringing more awareness to Suicide and Suicide prevention, so it's nice to see him rocket up the trail with confidence. (I believe he is running Jim Lanier dogs? I could be wrong.)
The chase pack is large but full of a lot of well known names as well as a few up and comers many may not be aware of. Hunter Keefe looks to really improve his standing over last year's Copper Basin. Joar Leifseth Ulsom's "puppy team" that was just using this race as a "training run" seems to be more into racing than his website led on (also he has a lot of veteran dogs on his team for a "puppy team" but who am I to judge). Matt Hall is reportedly very excited that his young team seems to be "getting it" in their first major race, and Jeff Deeter's team is also performing strongly.
Three scratches happened overnight. The first sign of "trouble" was Falk Huettman's tracker starting and stopping multiple times in the first leg and falling very much behind. Suddenly his tracker pinged going 41mph and that was almost a total giveaway that someone decided to throw in the towel. The scratch wasn't made official until this morning, but it came as no surprise. John Lloyd, running a puppy team for Team Petit, chose to scratch when the group of young dogs decided they were done. The whole goal of a puppy team is to get them used to the schedule of racing, the energy of a race, and to make sure they have fun. From John's wife's report it sounds like by the end of the night neither team or musher was having much fun. Elisha Rutledge rounds out the list of scratches, but no word on reason.
Several teams chose to do their mandatory 6 hour (plus differential) layover in Lake Louise, the front runners were not among them. Teams must have a mandatory 18 hours of rest over the course of the race. Nic has 8.5 hours tallied so far.