FL1000: Another group of mushers at the finish line

Enda tre kjørere er kommet i mål. Først av disse var Kjell Brennodden.

Another group of mushers has reached the finish line. The first of these was Kjell Brennodden.

An enthusiastic crowd from Folldal waited for Kjell Brennodden at the finish line. – Deep down I’m pleased with being among the top ten mushers. -In order to win I would have to had a lot of luck, he says. – I am pretty stiff after all the kicksledding I’ve been doing.

A couple of minutes later we spot a pair of headlights, and another battle take place. Sigrid Ekran comes first, closely followed by Ketil Reitan who takes 7^th place.

Two teams together

Sigrid Ekran tells us that she had a pleasant trip crossing the mountain. She is pleased with herself and has gained a lot of experience together with her dogs. She and Ketil Reitan have followed each other closely with only minutes between them ever since the Tana-river. They have taken turns on being in the lead, but when they reached Sorrisniva Ekran left Reitan. – The closest I got to beating her was when I came up beside her sled with my leading-dogs. I had no chance of passing her, but it sure was fun to try,Reitan says.

 

Ketil Reitan is pretty happy with his schedule which involved postponing the mandatory 16-hour rest to Kirkenes. - It can be fine-tuned a bit more and will work even better with more experienced dogs, he says.