Amundsen race

[aren]

Amundsen race, a 426 km race (264 miles) just started 50 mins ago at 18:00 (6 pm) norwegian time. You can find the link to the english site here http://www.amundsenrace.com/front.jsp?lang=en.

TRAIL INFORMATION


The race starts with a mass start on the ice of the Storsjön lake just outside the center of Östersund (Sweden) and finishes in Röros (Norway) at Malmplassen.

The trail goes from Storsjön, via Oviksfjällen to Ljungdalen and continues via Sweden most southern glacier Helags to Tänndalen where there will a 6 hours mandatory rest.
After Tänndalen the trail continues via Kärringsjön in to Norway to the offroad checkpoint outside Gammeldalen where the teams have to take a 4 hours mandatory rest. From here on the race follows the Femund lake on to Tufsingdalen, Grådalen and to the finish in Røros.



Total length of the trail is approx. 400 km, divided in to the following approximate stretches.



Östersund-Ljungdalen: 130 km.

Ljungdalen-Tänndalen: 70 km.

Tänndalen-Grövelsjön: 82 km.

Grövelsjön-Gammeldalen: 12 km.

Gammeldalen-Tufsingdalen: 88 km.

Tufsingdalen-Røros: 45 km.

Both Bjørnar Andersen and Robert Sørli is on the starting line with some 57 other mushers. Mostly from Norway, but also some from Sweden and a couple from central Europe.

Have translated a short article from Hurdal.

"Amundsen race is on. The start were in Ostersund at 6 pm. Kristin AAsheim is the first musher out. Bjørnar has bib #6 and Robert has bib #14. There are 142 km to the first cp, Ljungdalen, where the first teams are expected in between 2 and 3 am (norski time).
The weather forcast for Ljungdalen to night is overcast, light wind, 0,1 mm percipitation (Almost nothing) and temp -4 C (25F). Nice weather for sleddogs. Have a nice journey!"

[aren]

Just a quick update before I go to bed.
Hurdal reports that the mass start went well and that the speed was high. They say that both Robert and kjetil Reitan was keeping up a high speed from the start. The report also say that the swedish race organizers at the start were doing a great job. Well organized for the spectators, also the ones with children and dogs.
Musher Peter Carlsson were the first to pass a road, about 30 km from cp Ljungdalen.

More updates tomorrow

[aren]

OK, I will try to give you guys an uppdate on the posts from the Hurdal site about the Amundsen. There are quite a few posts so I will only translate the most interesting stuff. All times are refered to norski time.

Post "HVA BLIR TAKTIKKEN HOS GUTTA BOYS PÅ 42 MIL?" (11:23 pm last night) - What will the tactics be like? There is a question if the frontrunners will take more rest than the 2 mandatory ones, 6 hr at cp Tanndalen and 4 hr at cp Valldalen. There is a chance that only 10 hr rest wil cause the teams to slow down too much towards the end of the race.

Post "INGEN SPANN TIL LJUNGDALEN ENDA" (01:53 am last night) - Weather repport say there is a storm in the mountains. Both the snowmachine trailing behind the teams and one dog team have turned around waiting for an improovement in the weather.

Post "OLE CHRISTIAN HAGA INN TIL LJUNGDALEN SOM # 1 (03:47am) - Ole Chr Haga arrived at cp Ljungdale as # 1. He will rest at cp. Robert arrived as # 2 and just blew through.... Bjørnar left same cp 28 min after Robert. Some musher have decided to rest at this cp, while others have gone straight through. The question is how much room there is for different tactics in such a short race, only 420 km .

post "FJESTAD KJØRTE FEIL INN TIL LJUNGDALEN" (09:01am) - There are still a lot of wind in the mountains, although not as much as last night. Robert and Bjørnar will have a tough job breaking trail. They will probabely use between 5:30-6 hr on trail next cp.

Post "ROBERT ANKOMMET TÄNNDALEN SOM # 1" and "BJØRNAR INN TÄNNDALEN SOM # 2". (approx 10am) - Robert arrived Tanndalen as #1 and Bjørnar arrived as # 2. Both will have to take a 6 hr mandatory rest. Robert reports that he has not had any problems enroute Tanndalen. Difficult to stop the team at cp, they wanted to continue.... He is pleased with the team. Bjørnars team looked extremely strong in to cp. It took 4 people to stop the team !!.....

Post "DA DRAR DET SEG TIL" (12:48 pm) - Ketil Reitan rested 2:34 hr at cp Ljungdalen, but did not manage to close the gap enroute next cp Tanndalen. Robert will leave cp 38 mins ahead of Bjørnar, not much concidering that Bjørnar has his famous M-dogies in his team. This will be a hard fight.

[Heidi]

Thanks aren! I just read all that. Thanks for translating!

Go Robert! Go Bjornar!

Aren, who do you want to win? I'm going with Robert.

[aren]

More updates from the Hurdal site. Time is still refered to norski time.

Post "FLERE AV TOPPSPANNENE SLITER" 1:19 pm) - Several of the top teams are struggeling. Ole Chr Haga nr 1 into cp Ljungdalen has scratched. Unconfirned info say that he had trouble with 3 dogs. Several teams have used 10-15 hr enroute Østersund - Ljungdalen

Post "KAN RUTINE OG KAMPINSTINKT KOMPENSERE FOR BJØRNARS STERKE HUNDER?" (3:09pm) - Can Roberts experience compensate for Bjørnars strong dogs? On paper, Bjørnar has the stronger team of the two. Of the 11 dogs Kjetil had in harness when finishing Irod (a team that everybody thought looked incredible), Bjørnar has 9 of them in his team.
(Comment from aren. Here is a kind of explanation for the way Kjetil raced the last part of the Irod)
After about 600 miles of the Irod his young and unexperienced leaders became mentally exhaused and Kjetil decided to spare them by taking it a bit slower towards Nome.
A 420 km race should not cause any such problem.
Robert is an experienced musher and has a special ability to bring out the best in his dogs. He defiitely will not stop fighting before he crosses the finishline in Røros.

Post "OFF YOU GO" (3:39pm) - Robert was relaxed and in good spirit as he left cp Tanndalen at 3:17pm. Bjørnar left the cp 38 mins behind. His word when he left was "then the hunt begin"

Post "ROBERT OG BJØRNAR SATT UT EN HUND HVER" (4:28pm) - Both Robert and Bjørnar dropped one dog each at Tanndalen cp. Bjørnar had to drop Luke due to a sore wrist and Robert had to drop Hvit-Takk due to a sore shoulder.

Post "NÅR ER TETEN VENTET TIL NESTE SJEKKPUNKT?" (4:51pm) - When are the frontrunners expected into the next cp? Distance between Tanndalen cp and Valldalen cp is 91 km. Most of the toughest climbing is behind them now. The weather is still not very good. Temp around 32F and visibility only "half good" There are still some blowing snow in the mountains and the trail is supposedly fairly slow. The frontrunners will most probabely spend 7 hr or maybe a little more on trail to next cp.

That was it so far from Hurdal. Will post some more later
Hope You find it interesting.

Remember Amundsen has a website in english and the current standing can be found at
http://www.amundsenrace.com/race/result ... =no&mid=28

[aren]

Hi Heidi, Sure I always want Robert to win, but Bjørnar is an up and coming musher with a very good team of dogs in this race. And I wouldn't mind him winning either. You know ofcourse that he is Robert's nephew

[tanglefoot]

thanks for the translations....interesting and to think that in tow opposite sides of the world theres two races going on

[tilstede]

Impressive transaltions, Aren, done according to norwegian cultural style - straight ahead, presise and cut to the bone
Thanks for taking care of our tranlations duties! Don't know where the other norskis are. My self I'm lying flat on he sofa after my mushing debut. Both the dogs and me returned home in one piece, but all of us totally exhausted The whole story will be published tomorrow, along with some photos carefully resized and resampled by Kitchen King

[Heidi]

My self I'm lying flat on he sofa after my mushing debut. Both the dogs and me returned home in one piece, but all of us totally exhausted The whole story will be published tomorrow, along with some photos carefully resized and resampled by Kitchen King

I'm looking forward to that! And pictures too?! Hope you enjoyed yourself.

[Heidi]

Aren kindly sent me this in response to a PM I sent him about the Current Standings page (see link he provided) and I thought I should repost part of it here for you all:

...it looks like green is for teams which is at a cp and yellow is for teams which is enroute between cp's.

When you put your cursor onto a name in the leaderboard you find the following info:
1. Time out of previous cp
2. Time in to last cp
3. Time between these two cp's
4. Nr of dogs into cp
5. Time out of cp
6. Rest time in last cp
7. nr of dogs out of cp
8. Total time on the trail from start (excluding rest time in cp)
9. Total resting time in cp's
10. How much time of the 10 hr mandatory rest which is remaining

Thanks again Aren!