Yukon Quest: Top Five Picks (TFP) 2019, winner announced!

[mira]

There is one musher enroute to fairbanks now and he seems to be claiming ROTY! So as we are waiting for Martin to get to Fairbanks and the two parties who conquer Eagle and Rosebud I thought there was time for some statistics for our TFP.

We had 18 contestants.

11 picked Martin as ROTY, 4 Chase Tingle, 2 Lisbet Norris and one Jim Lanier.

Both Allen and Matt where chosen as the winner by 7 members. 2 picked Brent Sass. According to our guesses, we had this result list:
1. Allen, 2. Matt, 3, Brent, 4. Jessie, 5 Hans.

7 chose Allen as winner, and 7 other had him in second and 3 in third, there were actually just one who didn't have him in their list and the rest of us had him in 1-3. The situation is quite similar for Matt, 7 had him first, 5 second and 5 third. Yet again, only one did not have him at all.

[mira]

...and the results are in!

Our winner had all the five mushers correct and one musher placed correctly! Actually, only 7 were able to get one musher at correct place.

Congratulations to elsietee, and with all that analytics posted during this years race I guess elsietee will be ready for next year as well!

elsietee: 13 (correct R)
flowerpower: 11 (correct R)
life, Marlyn, Breeze: 11
sc-race-fan: 10 (correct R)
klmobile, Alphashe, libby the lab, braider, mira: 8 (correct R)
txbennett: 8
flyingllaama, Barney, JeanieB: 6 (correct R)
emwcee: 6
fladogfan og Moose: 4

[fladogfan]

Moosie! We share the red lantern

[klmobile]

Way to go Elsietee, and thanks for all your update!

[elsietee]

Thanks Mira - for your maths

I knew I was the only one who picked all the correct protagonists <proud>, but since I got them in the wrong order, I figured someone else was bound to take the "ultimate prize".

Yukon Quest, over the years, has gone from an abstract concept (a list of names of finishers - none of whom I knew or cared about) to a fully fledged, looooonnnnnnggggg spectator sport where I know many of the mushers through social media, know their dogs, know the trials they have been going through, know the trail (at least in my mind) and understand how each legs fits with the next - and to see the blow-by-blow through updates and scrutinize the trackers to understand what's actually happening (strategy is everything... and nothing when the plan falls apart) is wonderful. Understanding the nuances makes it all the more fun/interesting to watch.

For me, the sport has blossomed, and I've matured in my understanding of it. I don't follow any "mainstream" sports, so my sled dog season immersion is a curious thing (surrounded at work by basketball fans - which I totally blank on) to others, so it's good to have a place to come to spout on about whatever latest "thing" has happened in the race.

[flowerpower]

Congrats Elsietee! Good job! Yes, and many thanks for the updates. They are a huge help for me!

[Marlyn]

Thanks Mira and Elsietee. You make this so much fun. I always run my own numbers and never get it quite right, but eventually I agree with you experts!!

[sc-race-fan]

Congrats Elsietee, and thanks Mira for the scoring. I feel great to be in the top 25% of "guessers". It was an interesting race and now on to the Iditarod picking!

[libby the lab]

Way to go LC!

[Alphashe]

Congrats, elsietee! And thanks to Mira