IditaProject Forum

That kind of rhymes

HERE HE COMES! Those dogs are CHARGING into the finish chute.

Rick Swenson is at the line to give him a congratulatory hug.

Dogs are getting ALL the pets.

"Gam gam" gets extra pets. (Gamble, who was with him when he last won the Iditarod.) He has also managed to mess up his harness again.

And Dallas Seavey is all smiles getting a picture with his lead dogs, North and West. "The picture I never got at the junior Iditarod."

Greg Heister: #5, can you sum it up?
Dallas: Comes after four, I guess.

Dallas has crossed the Finish Line! 20 miles behind is Aaron Burmeister, and then 10 miles behind him is Brent Sass.

Once those three come in, things are going to get crazy. Coming into to Skwentna, Wade Marrs and Mille Porsild were neck and neck, followed closely by Nicolas Petit and Ryan Redington. There's going to be some GREAT racing going on there.

It's been lightly snowing on the trail since last night, but doesn't seem to be affecting the teams on the trail too much.

After the top seven, there's going to be some more crazy battles going on: Joar Leifseth Ulsom, Richie Diehl, and Michelle Phillips all came in Skwentna minutes apart. And after them Jeff Deeter and Jessie Royer were neck and neck coming into their 8-hour mandatory rest.

Historically, Dallas Seavey joins Rick Swenson as the only musher to win 5 Iditarods. To reach that mark at the age of 34 with how competitive all of the top teams are right now is simply unprecedented.

Yep
Congrats Dallas, a very dominant performance.
Nice that Rick Swenson is there.

It looked like Nicolas were gaining on Mille, but perhaps there is a part of the trail that is a bit slower. Anyhow, Wade is in front of those 4-7th place..

In the group for 8-10 Joar is going at 8 now and has passed Richie

Just saw Danny's footage of Dallas come flying into the finish - nicely done, him. He must be thrilled to finish with such a great looking team!

Danny commented that Gamble, one of Dallas' dogs was also on his 2016 winning team. To still be on the same winning team 5 years later is a testament to a good dog - and good dog care!

* * *

If there was more trail, I'd think Brent would catch Aaron, but I think the trail will run out before that happens.

Wade seems to have kept his speed after the 8 hour break, so Mille is falling behind him slightly (only by two miles).

Joar, Richie and Michelle's teams looked SO good coming into SKW last night - tails wagging, still cheerful. A good choice by them to run the dogs and not try to deplete them.

Aaron Burmeister is into the finish line! You could tell he was tearing up a little upon arrival.

In his post-race interview, he talked about how he worked up two schedules for the race: a conservative one and a more aggressive one. He ended up racing more conservatively...but the aggressive schedule matched almost exactly the race Dallas ended up running. I'm thinking this race is going to be haunting Aaron for a while - he was in it the whole time, and he might have had the team to stick with Dallas if he hadn't been a little more cautious in the beginning. We'll never know...

Brent is in!

Otherwise, it seems like it has settled with Wade, Mille, Nicolas, Ryan, Joar, Richie and Michelle. But the distances is small within the two groups, so it is quite possible changes.

Watch for Ramey Smyth - he’s creeping up on Michelle! Would not want him behind me at this stage <gulp>.

You don't want a Smyth on your heels on the last leg.

Otherwise, it looks like it will be Wade, Mille, Nicolas and Ryan in that order. Wade and Mille is just a couple of miles apart. Joar seems to have control of 7th, but they have more trail to cover.

For those who missed it, here's a link from Alaskanewsource that showed Dallas' winning the race from when he was about a mile or so out to all the post crossing photo ops: https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2021/ ... mpionship/

This is my first post here for a long time as i couldn't find my login info and I'd been attached to the old Iditarod forums on the official site, which were removed this year. I've certainly enjoyed all your comments and commentary, especially Fool - thanks ever so much everyone.
Rich