Skrevet av: Stefan Sanne
Dato: 09.03.2004 23:08
Frode Holten arrived at Kirkenes checkpoint in third position only one minute after Bjørnar Andersen who is in second place. Both of them arrived an hour after Petter Jahnsen. While Andersen is steadily moving up the list, is Holten trying to regain the lead he had before the longest stage.
Frode Holten's reaction after finishing the long stage was quite different from the exhausted Jahnsen. Frode arrived happy and extremely content with his and especially his dogs performance. He arrived with a big smile on his face and said that the legg was simply great. He arrived with on of his dogs on his sled, but none of the dogs are hurt, they are just a bit tired. Frode himself looked surprisingly fresh and said that after a bit of rest everything would be fine.
At 15:30 Tove Sørensen appeared in fourth place and straight after him Tore Albrigtsen. The two mushers from Tromsø mastered the long stage together and needed 16 hours and nineteen minutes. Now they were just tired.
- We did not think the stage would be this long, said Tove.
Roger Dahl arrived as sixth at 16:13, followed by three mushers coming in with only one minute time difference. Ralph Johannessen, Trond Ørslien and Kjell Brennodden will also get their well deserved rest in Kirkenes now before they set out again.
The question about when the winner of the last two Finnmarkslopet Rune Johansen would finally be able to finish this stage was answered at 21:39, meaning that it took him more 20 hours from Neiden. As mentioned earlier Johansen had to park because his young dogs needed the rest and would not go on. However Rune arrived in Kirkenes with his 11 dogs ahead of his sled and had good speed. So now the question is only about how long he will stay in the checkpoint. Have his dogs had the necessary rest to start out quickly from Kirkenes again to follow the path of the leading teams.