Mushing Radio - Iditarod 50: Toward the Coast

Sass and Seavey finish their Yukon 8

 Brent Sass and Dallas Seavey have finished their mandatory 8 hour rests on the Yukon and are back on the trail. It's not exactly a cat and mouse game at this point, and they both seem to be solidly in the first and second positions with not a lot of room or threat of shake up without some of Mother Nature's intervention. Dallas took his mandatory in the Yukon Village checkpoint of Nulato, coming in at just after Midnight. Brent Sass, right on script, ran all the way to Kaltag and declared his 8 there, getting in just after 2:30am AKST. 

Sass has picked up all of the "first to" awards as he travels down the trail and looks to be the first to the Coast as well. Dallas is a good 3 hours behind him, not completely insurmountable... but not likely without Brent making a mistake and pushing the dogs a little too hard to where they slow or stop completely. All indications point so far to Brent managing his race extremely well, he's learned quite a bit since his team's premature stop in White Mountain in 2016.

The chase back began arriving in Nulato as Dallas was taking off. Jessie Holmes was first in and is running impressive speeds, but even the musher acknowledges that he can't keep up his pace forever. He's cutting rest and that never helps a team maintain the speed it would take to overtake and pick off the lead teams. It will be interesting to see how Holmes plays his cards from here on out. Richie Diehl was next followed by Ryan Redington and Aaron Burmeister. A quick glance at the GPS as I get ready to post this shows them all resting in Nulato except Burmeister who has chosen to continue (it looks like anyway).

In the back of the pack there's a little shake up in standings with Kaylin Davis leading the trio of ladies and Yuka Honda bringing up the rear. Lisbet Norris and her team of Siberians rests between them. The teams have run together most of the race helping each other through blizzards and other hazards. 

Greg Heister just reported on Insider that the winds are so strong between Kaltag and the coast that flights are grounded and Insider can't get to Unalakleet. A storm was supposed to blow in on the West Coast last night and it sounds like it's on schedule. The race ain't over.

Mushing Radio - Iditarod 50: Returned Dogs

The chase is on

Brent Sass and Dallas Seavey have been mostly alone today as they've run down the Yukon, but they're about to get company. The chase pack of Jessie Holmes, Richie Diehl, Ryan Redington, Aaron Burmeister, and Mitch Seavey are all out of Ruby and onto the river after taking their mandatory 8 in the first Yukon checkpoint.

While Mitch Seavey has all but conceded the race and is "planning for the future" (according to a post by Danny Seavey on facebook today), the other teams are hoping that should Sass or DSeavey stall, they will be in striking distance and take advantage. To this point Burmeister has run the most conservative race of the chase pack, and Jessie Holmes is the one who seems most in control with a lot of speed. 

The way the two in front have taken their rests on the river,  it looks like Dallas will 8 in Nulato while Sass will push to Kaltag. There's a big gap between the two teams and right now in order for Dallas to overtake Sass, Sass has to make a mistake or his dogs have to decide to pull a Forrest Gump and just stop running. That's happened to Sass before, but he's shown he's learned that lesson as his team has come back stronger than ever and he's won two more Quests since then. 

Both Seavey and Sass are very happy with how their teams are doing. Dallas was concerned going into his 24 that his dogs were not interested in eating enough, but that's switched up now and he says he can't give them enough food. Sass's team has been steady and fast, with the musher noting earlier this week that it was "scary" how fast they were going while staying on their schedule. That sounds a lot like Mitch Seavey talking about his record breaking finish time when he won in 2017 with a team that he "could not slow down" even going into the finish.

It's not time to call the race, but it definitely looks like the chase pack will be the more exciting race. I seem to recall saying that in 2014 though as we all wondered if it'd be Dallas or Mitch coming in 3rd. Jeff King was solidly in control of the race, and Aliy finally pulled away from the Seaveys to beat them to the finish - only to both have trouble in the final stretch due to a freak windstorm. King would scratch, Aliy would come second, once again, to Dallas Seavey.

Neff scratches in Ruby

Hugh Neff came into Ruby this morning pretty happy with how his team from Jim Lanier's Northern Whites Kennel looked coming onto the Yukon. He chose to rest his team in the checkpoint and as hours ticked by fans believed the musher had declared his 8 hour mandatory rest that must take place somewhere on the Yukon. As the countdown ticked down and Neff didn't leave, folks began to grow concerned. A zoom in of the tracker showed Neff's flag near the airport, which could only mean one thing. Scratched.

The press release read in full:

"Veteran Iditarod musher Hugh Neff scratches at Ruby checkpoint 

Anchorage, Alaska –– Veteran Iditarod musher Hugh Neff (bib #50) of Anchorage, Alaska, scratched at 11:40 a.m. today at the Ruby checkpoint. In conjunction with Iditarod Race Marshal Mark Nordman, Neff made the decision to scratch due to their concern for his race team. Neff had 11 dogs in harness at the time he made the decision to scratch."

The press release's wording is peculiar as it's not the normal "best interest of the team". We'll have to keep and eye out to see if anyone gives more detail once the team is back at home. 

Mushing Radio - Iditarod 50: The Mighty Yukon

Mushing Radio - Iditarod 50: Heading to the Yukon