I skrivende stund har Ralph Johannessen nettopp lagt ut på den siste og avgjørende etappen ned mot Alta. Samtidig forbereder resten av tetgruppa seg på å lette snøankeret for å sette etter i løpet av de neste timene.
Skrevet av: Dag B. Urdal/ Therese Hagerup (transl.)
Dato: 18.03.2010 12:15
Ralph Johannessen headed out on the final and decisive leg towards Alta about an hour ago. At the same time the rest of the leading teams are preparing to leave the checkpoint within the next hours.
After arrival in Karasjok a group of 7 teams in addition to Johannessen, who left 11:07 this morning with 8 dogs, have separated themselves from rest of the competition. Sørlie has left and Bjørnar Andersen is heading out 20 minutes behind him. Roger Dahl, Kjell Brennodden, Sigrid Ekran, Ketil Reitan and Harald Tunheim will all depart, one after the other, within the next couple of hours.
Among these are several mushers who might surprise us before the end of the day. Just remember Roger Dahl who, in 2005, departed 50 minutes behind Tunheim who was in the lead from Karasjok. Nevertheless, Dahl arrived in Alta 20 minutes before Tunheim.
Even though Johannessen clearly has a head start on the last leg, a lot of things can happen before he crosses the finishline in Alta. It is after all 130 km though many challenging terrains. Both Hundevidda and Iesjavre might be difficult.
A good musher will normally use approx. 10 hours to Alta. In that case we can expect them to finish the race around nine o’clock this evening.
