by Skip95 » Thu Mar 06, 2008 2:20 pm
Definitely like the idea of discussing who's the leader. Very interesting to see 2 very clear groups: those 5-6 strong teams taking 24 at Cripple and those 3 strong teams the 24'd in Takotna. The winner is one of those 9, I'd stake the Yukon gold on it. So, that means the top 9 we'll probably start to see in about a day is (in no specific order):
DeeDee, Gebhardt, Steer, M. Buser, Iten, Ken Anderson, Lance, King and Backen. 3 others could make pushes and appear strong: Zirkle, Gatt and Swenson. Some others might still make a push, but the speeds really drop off as do the #s of dogs. Some of the top 9 I mentioned are down a bit in #s as well, so we'll see how this heat affects them as they push on during the heat of the day while those at Cripple are resting. That's why I think Zack and Rohn will probably end up falling out of the top 10 and probably out of the top 15. They're losing dogs quickly and still trying to keep up. In this heat, that'll compound the problem and then if they get that stomach bug like DeeDee's dogs had, it could knock them right out of the race all together. Hopefully Martin will tell Rohn to get some rest and ease up a bit, I'd like to see Rohn finish well. My money's really on those 24ing in Cripple at this point. They'll be waking up to start their next run well-rested and in hopefully cooler temps and faster snow. But then again...this is the Iditarod and we're all in front of computers and not out on the trail, where things are a lot different than they may appear, plus the dogs have their own say in this as well.....