All praise to Roger

Many had the competitive Harald Tunheim as their favourite when he arrived first at the checkpoint in Karasjok with a 50 min lead. But after an 8 hour break in Karasjok Roger had managed to rest his team better. On the stage from Karasjok to Jotka Roger caught up with Harald, and passed him. - When I didn't win, I am delighted that Roger won, Harald said after passing the finish-line.

Tunheim admits that it was no fun to be passed at Jotka and the last 40 km towards the finish, but after reaching goal he does not think that he made any mistakes.

- I feel that I have done a perfect race and could not have done anything differently. Roger wins because he has done a fantastic job and simply had a stronger team, says the silver-medalist Harald Tunheim.

At the finish there was someone who was extra pleased today. That was Harald's 4 year old son Martin. He had been waiting sooo long and when dad finally arrived sooo many people wanted to talk to him. Some tears were shed.

- Hi, Martin. Have you waited for dad? What are we going to do today? Do you want to go skiing? No. Just simply enjoy ourselves? Ok, we'll do that. Where is Sunniva? Is she asleep? Ok then. It is going to be great to get home to Anne Beate, Martin (4) and Sunniva (2), Harald said holding Martin in his arms.

Half a meter high snowbanks

Tunheim has not started Finnmarksløpet the past seven years. Those who knows him says that he is a competitive guy whom you always have to consider among he best. Before the race Harald said he was racing to win, but he was uncertain about how far the young dogs would last. This year they almost lasted till the very end, but the heavy snow on the 80 km between Karasjok and Jotka was too tiring for the dogs.

- It has been a hard and tough stage with tons of new snow and snowbanks on the stage to Jotka. A lot of places the snowbanks that we had to cross were half a meter high. The dogs have worked for more than 12 hours and were very tired at the end. They had no juice left, says Harald who was passed by Roger at the lake at Jotka. On the way down to Alta he tried to shift the dogs around, but it did not help much.

- Roger deserved to win. He has got many second and third places. In fact I think he is a little surprised himself, Tunheim says. Both Roger Dahl and Harald Tunheim agree that the most important thing in this years Finnmarksløp was that a musher from Alta won.

- The most important thing today was that we took back the hegemony of long-distance-racing to where it belongs, to Alta, Harald Tunheim says.

No chance towards Alta

The teacher at Øytun Folkehøyskole had no chance on the trip from Jotka to Alta. He was 15 minutes behind Dahl at Langvannet in Bollo, by the bridge in Sorrisniva he was 22 minutes behind. When Dahl also managed to pass the critical point by his home in Stengelsen without any big problems, Tunheim had lost the battle. He lost to Dahl the whole way from Jotka and when he passed the finish-line in Øvre Alta he was 37 minutes behind.

- I knew that I had lost when Roger passed me at Jotka at a much higher speed. When I saw that there were no tracks to his house in Stengelsen I knew that I would get silver. I have won three times, finished third, fourth and fifth, but I have never before finished second so it was ok to get silver today, Tunheim says.

To Iditarod when we can win

Most people believed in Harald Tunheim. He has raced in Finnmarksløpet six times and won in 1996, 1997 and 1998 in a convincing way. In 1999 he finished 19th and became rookie of the year in Iditarod, number 25 in year 2000 and 12th in 2002. After that he has gotten a new generation dogs and has concentrated on building a new winning team. The team he has raced in this years' Finnmarksløp is new, except from two dogs that he has kept from his winning-team from the 90s. His fantastic lead-dog Masi is among the retired dogs. He probably missed her last night on the tough trip in the snow from Karasjok to Jotka. Will he do Iditarod again we wonder?

- Yes, I am going to do Iditarod again, but not until my team is good enough to win. Today I finished 2nd, so it will be a while, silver medalist Harald Tunheim says.