Nine racers have checked out of Nome in the 2018 Iron Dog race after an early morning restart time at 4 o’clock.
That’s KNOM’s Gabe Colombo in the media player above, following the first team out of Nome for the restart, Team 10’s Mike Morgan and Chris Olds. Morgan feels confident about the second leg of the race:
Yeah, we feel pretty good, we got a couple of hours of sleep, and looks like the weather is gonna be pretty decent today, and we’ve got really good lighting on the sled, so they turn night into day, anyway. So yeah, so whenever Iron Dog wants to start us now, let’s go!
Morgan and Olds continue to lead the pack out of Nome, having checked out of White Mountain at 4:58 this morning. But back at the race restart in Nome, Olds said maintaining first position will be hard if the weather becomes uncooperative:
Well, I think Mother Nature’s gonna have the biggest role in that. There’s a lot of snow on the Yukon, so we might be breaking some trail, but you know, just riding like we’ve been riding is really our main focus, just keep doing what we’re doing, and I think we’ve got a good shot. Like I said, Mother Nature will have the last say, so we’ll see what happens.
The top five racers are all out of White Mountain. Team 6, Brad George and Robby Schachle, are in second position. They checked out of White Mountain twenty-three minutes after Team 10. In third position, Todd Minnick and Nick Olstad checked out at 5:49 this morning. Rounding out the top 5 teams, Casey Boylan and Leslie Bryan checked out of White Mountain at 6:39 this morning in forth position. Team 20, Scott Faeo and Chad Geuco, are in fifth, checking out of White Mountain at 6:41 this morning.
Tune into KNOM’s newscasts throughout the day for more updates on the 2018 IronDog race.
Image at Top: Chris Olds hydrates at the Iron Dog half-way finish into Nome. His partner on Team 10, Mike Morgan, says the few hours they’ve had to rest up before the restart has made the team optimistic about the second leg of the race. (Photo: Karen Trop/KNOM)
