Skrevet av: Dag B. Urdal/Anne-Mette Bjøru (trans.)
Dato: 05.03.2006 18:49
Harald Tunheim keeps impressing! He sems to have very good dogs and is racing hard towards Tana and the checkpoint Skippagurra. The question is whether the tempo he is going at now can hold all the way to the finish line. On the other hand, people that know him says he has done similar things before.
Tunheim set a new leg record on the stage between Skoganvarre and Levajok last night using only 5 hours between the two checkpoints. This shows that his dogs are in good shape and that he plans to spend as little time as possible on the trails. This means that his dogs need less rest - this is a plan that Tunheom has followd before. He used the same tactics last year and it worked nearly all the way to the finish line.
However, there are many smart and experienced mushers this year. Snorre Næss is one of them. He races in 6 hour intervals - 6 hours on the tracks and 6 hours rest - whether it fits with where the checkpoints are or not. This is the rhythm that suits his dogs. Therefore it is very difficult to know how he is doing during the race but he can end up finishing first!
Tunheim got into the checkpoint at 17:02, an hour before the expected time. He had very quick dogs which tells us that he has not raced too hard.