Da er frontkjørerne på halm i Neiden II. Ralph Johannesen har en drøy times forsprang, deretter er det ikke mye armslag nedover på lista.
Skrevet av: Anki Ødegaard/S.M. Arctander (transl.)
Dato: 16.03.2010 18:28
Now the first mushers are resting in Neiden II. Ralph Johannessen has about an hour on the next musher, but for the rest of them, there is not much time dividing them.
Five mushers came in to checkpoint Neiden II in a time span of 35minutes. First of them was Roger Dahl, he had lost another 20 minutes to Johannessen. Dahl says it had been slow going and that he found it tiring to be out there. He should have changed his runners, but could not find the energy.
Harald Tunheim came inn just one minute behind Dahl, and had made the lap three minutes faster. Tunheim also found it slow going out there. He is a bit concerned that he may not have enough dogs, but it just have to work, he comments.
Kjell Brennodden finished the lap three minutes faster than Tunheim, but he found it very hard. He kept looking at Dahl and Tunheim in front of him, hoping to gain on them, but it did not happen. But then he had to take one of his dogs on the sled for most of the lap.
Robert Sørlie is also a part of this tight group, his team seemed to be fit on its way in to the checkpoint, but he had also had a dog on his sled most of the time. His dog is just tiered.
Bjørnar Andersen is the last in this group of teams arriving before 16:25. The race is still open. Johannessen seems to have a hand on the winning, but that is just for now. Behind him it is very open, not to mentioned Sigrid Ekran, Arne Karlstrøm and Ketil Reitan.
All photos: Anki Ødegaard