Saturday, January 9, 2016

Season's First major Race in progress

The Copper Basin 300 is underway. The last racer was off by mid-afternoon and the current leader, who started first, has covered about fifty miles so far. As with all the major races there are mandatory rest breaks and vet checks. Most of the serious mushers do not take a minute off the trail that they are not required to unless their team really falters. Few of the top racers experience that because they carefully select their teams from considerably larger numbers of dogs than they require to field teams of twelve to sixteen.

This one is a little different to follow than the Iditarod but they also have have a GPS tracker and a leader board. Estimates are the first racer will cross the finish line in the middle of the day on Monday. Since it is a bit under a third as far as the thousand milers, the speed is pretty brisk! They had to go twenty miles up the hill for a start due to soft snow and open streams that were unsafe for the dogs to run on to say nothing of hazards to the mushers. This distance will not be made up since it is not really significant being less than 10%.

CB300 is the first major race of the season and a qualifier for the Iditarod for rookies to test their mettle and prove their capabilities to tackle the big one. There are quite a few rookies running this one, some with a lot of other mushing background and some real newbies, relatively speaking. If you want to take a look at the inner workings of this race, they have a "Race Central" page on their website (CB300.com) and also a place on FaceBook. Here is where you can follow the action: http://cb300.com/racecentral.aspx

Besides my special favorites Aliy and Allen, I saw some other recognized names, such as Lisbet Norris, who is running her Siberians and getting ready for her third go at the Iditarod come March. From the site, it looks like just under fifty mushers are running--the highest bib number I saw was 49. I'll be following the race until the bulk of the mushers are in home safe and will report a time or two, for sure.  I am so excited that the racing season is finally started and in at least some places there is snow although it has been too mild a winter so far. It's two months until the Iditarod so anything is possible but I would make a small bet on a Fairbanks start again this year. The Yukon Quest will be starting there this year and ending in White Horse, Canada since they reverse the route each iteration. More on that in a bit.

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