From Iditarod Insider Analyst Bruce Lee

I’m standing on banks of Takotna River right now… and the sky seems to finally show signs of something different than snow. Weather here is improving. That’s good for the Iditarod Air Force Pilots… and it is what it is for the teams that are here right now picking this particular checkpoint to 24.  There are a bunch more teams in McGrath doing the same thing.  After these front runners blazed through a virtual highway between Rainy Pass and Nikolai, it looks like Mother Nature has decided to slow things down a bit.  Teams here are banking on the Iditarod Trailbreakers to firm up a trail that’s been hammered by snow.  There’s no rabbit taking that high risk to get in front of the rest… only patient mushers who are resting their teams in preparation for whatever is next. Speaking of patience… that’s at the core of what’s on the minds of many of these mushers. Patience and intuition will create separation in the not distant future. In all my days as a competitor, and as an analyst in this race, I have never seen teams in the kind of condition these teams are in at this point in the race.  They look fantastic. It’s a real credit to the care and the training that got them to Takotna.

So here goes my first shot at who I see as the front runners at this point.  They’re the ones who have controlled their run rest ratio and their speed.  They’re the ones who let the others break trail so they could stay in control.  They are 2004 Champ Mitch Seavey, four time champ Jeff King, Norwegian Bjornar Andersen, two time champ Lance Mackey, and the guy who got here first Aaron Burmeister.  That said,  I believe that the rest of this race won’t be about speed (especially with all this new snow), it’s going to be about patience and maintenance.

See you down the Trail,

Bruce