DAY 9

Mackey, Gebhardt duel for lead on home stretch

By CRAIG MEDRED
Anchorage Daily News

Published: March 12, 2007
Last Modified: March 14, 2007 at 06:27 PM

KOYUK -- Twelve tough dogs and one irrepressible musher were Monday vying to do the impossible -- win the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest International Sled Race and 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in the same year.

Once it was thought impossible simply to complete both in the same year. Then, after several mushers accomplished that feat, the common belief was that it would require two different dog teams.

Lance Mackey from Fairbanks disproved that theory, but most believed that any musher attempted to double would be so worn out from the Quest that he, or she, would never be able to organize a winning Iditarod effort.

Mackey is now trying to blow that idea off the trail, as well.

He and sidekick Paul Gebhardt from Kasilof were in what amounted to a dead heat run for the White Mountain checkpoint as they rolled out of the village of Koyuk at about noon Monday.

Mackey, who had a lead of several hours upon arriving there, rested his dog for three and then hit the trail with about a 13 minute lead over Gehbardt, who had chosen to rest a checkpoint earlier.

Gebhardt came in on the 60-mile trail from Shaktoolik behind Mackey, and paused just 9 minutes at the checkpoint -- just long enough to sign in, grab some food for his dogs and sign out. He left trailing the leader by only 13 minutes.

For the first time in days, too, Gehbardt's team posted a faster trail speed than Mackey's. Gebhardt's dogs did almost 8 mph on the long, flat seemingly endless crossing of frozen Norton Bay. Mackey's team slipped to 7.5 mph there.

At Koyuk, Mackey opted to drop one dog. It remained to be seen whether that would increase team speed, but there is an old adage in mushing that says a team can only travel as fast as its slowest member.

Amazingly, the dog Mackey dropped was the first member of a core of Quest dogs that made the long run from Whitehorse, Yukon, to Fairbanks late last month. All three of the dogs Mackey had dropped previously along the Iditarod Trail were dogs he added to that Quest core thinking fresh teammates would be an asset.

The real asset appears to have been the strength and determination of the Quest veterans.

They have been a powerhouse since Gebhardt and Mackey teamed up days ago to try and run down four-time Iditarod champs Martin Buser from Big Lake and Jeff King from Denali Park. Mackey caught Buser going into Unalakleet on the Bering Sea Coast. He almost got King there, too, but didn't grab the lead until the defending champ decided he needed to rest what appeared to be a fading dog team.

Both Mackey and Gebhardt jumped into the front at that point.

"I want very much to win this," King confessed as he pulled out Unalakleet Sunday night, "but if I don't, I hope Lance does because it's a real, magical story."

"It's tough as hell for one of us (King or Buser) to win it four times, and if we could do it five times (tougher), as opposed to someone who's not supposed to win it, who wants it that bad, who has a magical run."

"There's fairy tail ending."

Even that might be an understatement.

The performance Mackey's team was putting down was nothing short of phenomenal. Though his dogs appeared to be slowing Monday -- as the race headed for White Mountain where everyone takes a mandatory, 8-hour rest before the last push to Nome -- they were still faster than the dogs of most anyone behind trying to chase him down.

Buser and King were down to speeds under 7 mph and appeared to be battling for position as the race moved into its last 200 miles.

Buser admitted his dogs were tiring.

"They're just about out of gas, just like their owner," he said as he fed them in Koyuk.

Behind him. Zack Steer from Sheep Mountain and Ed Iten from Kotzebue were tearing up the trail. Both were faster than King and Buser -- Steer substantially so.

The brother of Olympic biathlete Rachael Steer, Zack -- a former skier himself -- was thinking he might have been even faster if he hadn't broke a ski pole. Mushers regularly use poles to help the dogs move the sled along the coast. Steer's $100 pole was tied to his sled on the run from Takota to Ophir about halfway through the 1,100-mile race from Anchorage to Nome when a tree limb caught it and snapped it in half.

"It was a nice carbon-fiber pole," Steer said. "I think I stole it from my sister."

He laughed.

"I'm really going to need one because on the coast it's really handy," he added. "When the team speed is slower, it can really affect their performance. There's a lot more kicking and poling."

Without a pole, Steer would be doing a lot of pedaling behind the sled with one leg. The 33-year-old old musher was, however, optimistic he could still catch Buser, 49, and King, 51, if he worked as hard as his dogs.

"It's great for me because I've got nothing to lose," he said. "I can try to catch those guys, but if I don't, who cares? I could get seventh place or 10th place. I don't care. But if I catch a couple of them and end up second or third, that's great."

"If they all blow up their teams and I end up first, that's even better!"

There was no indication that was about to happen, but Buser and King -- the leaders for most of this race -- did appear to be fading.

More

Ekran is Iditarod rookie of the year

Light Table Mackey

Brooks disqualified from Iditarod

Iditarod dog death under investigation

Mackey makes history with Iditarod win

‹ With final surge, Steer nails down 3rd place

‹ Gebhardt chases Mackey to Nome; four rest in White Mountain

‹ Mushing's 1st family Mackeys pile on the victories

‹ Photos: The Iditarod

More Features stories ›


Iditarod Sponsors