Skrevet av: Niels Westphal/Stefan Sanne
Dato: 12.03.2004 07:43
Bjørnar Andersen from Oslo used to be ahead of Ralph Johannessen for more than two hours when they left Levajok, but the news from the track suggest, that the man from Bergen, who has two dogs more left in his team, is closing in. Bjørnar was exhausted but in good spirit when he arrived at Skoganvarre. He hopes to be able to avoid a sprinting duell. -Ralph has two dogs more to mush with and so I hope to avoid having a duell with him.
Even though he will be in the lead by up to two hours, he feels the pressure on him and knows it will stay on him all the way to the finish line. He is especially worried about the number of dogs he has left.
- When Ralph has two dogs more in his team, then he will have more speed in his team, more to mush with at the end. But so far everything is going well and I am very satisfied with our trip. But I pedalled and ran up all of the hills, he said.
In Levajok Bjørnar had to take out the best of his leading dogs of the team. Therefore he also lost some of the power in his team.
- Anyway, it went great up to here, but I could really need her now on the way into Alta, he said.
The weather forecast is good now. Cloudy sky, no wind and about -1 degrees. After the colder night the trail is good now, something that is good for Bjørnars fast dogs.
In Skoganvarre the mushers have to take the 8 hour obligatory rest. This means that Bjørnar and his dogs are going to continue the race at 13:15 and head home to Alta.