Skrevet av: Per-Henrik Stenstrøm/Stefan Sanne
Dato: 08.03.2005 12:04
The stage is set for a nerve wracking finish in the 500 km class. Hilde Askildt went out in the lead, but Jan Øystein Dervo is right on her tail -just one minute behind. Katy Meier started 17 minutes later.
It is just impossible to say who will win the 500 km race. The only thing that is certein is that the winning team will show up at Alta Strand Camping sometime tonight and most likely around 17:00.
Hilde Askildt went out on the last part of the race with 7 dogs.
- I had to take out one of my bitches which was just too tired. But the other dogs are in good shape says the musher from Geilo, who actually went the wrong way sometime tonight.
- I am very irritated that I managed to go wrong on the way to Karasjok. I lost a half hour lead because of this. It would have been alright to be overtaken of a better team, but to go the wrong way is just irritating. It was a big distance between the markings and I took the wrong turn. But when I saw the light of Jan Øystein Dervo going a different way, did I understand that I was going the wrong way. That's when I started to hunt him down again. The dogs went fantastic just before the checkpoint and so I managed to catch him just in time, explains Hilde before leaving from Suoassjavre.
Jan Øystein Dervo from Tana is impressed by Hildes dogs.
- They are very good. When they overtook me tonight, they were going quite fast. And it is the end of a stage that you can really tell how god a team s, says Dervo. He still has his whole team, but says that it is not likely to be a decisive factor.
- It is not a problem to only have 6 dogs in your team on this last stage. It is quite flat and fast so that the speed hardly ever goes down.
The stretch between Suoassjavre and Alta is 104 km long. The mushers need to check in at Joatka, but all the mushers coming from Suoassjavre have used up their mandatory rest. Unless they should be having some kind of trouble and leave some dogs there, they will only go on straight towards Strand camping. So be there on time so that you do not miss them.